In this episode, we talk with Pastor Rob Mellgard from the Ovid Federated Church.
The Church has a combined United Methodist and half Presbyterian congregation. The church’s monthly food distribution ran into a problem. It was bigger than the church could handle and became a monthly traffic problem. The answer was right down the road at South Seneca High School. The school lets the church use one of its bus garages to store the monthly Foodlink delivery, and traffic lines up four across to pick up their shares.
Related: INSIDE THE FLX: The Lodi Food4All Pantry, its mission, its volunteers and its future (podcast)
We arrived to find a team of volunteers, from students at the school to church members, to members of the Ovid community arranging the food for pickup. The food distribution was scheduled to begin at 3:45 p.m. and precisely at 3:45, over a hundred cars started to roll through the parking lot, some picking up shares for their families, others picking up shares for people they know.
I talked with Pastor Rob about the people in south Seneca County facing food insecurity and the effort it takes to help feed them every month. We also visited with Aja McKenzie with Fidelis Care, who answers customers’ questions about health care and helps some of them sign up for plans under New York’s Essential Plan.
I was saddened to see so many cars lined up to receive food, but gladdened by the work of Pastor Rob and a dedicated team of volunteers to help meet the need. We salute them for what they do.
