Oak Chapel United Methodist Church may only have 60 members, but that doesn’t stop it from accomplishing big things.
Saturday morning, church members officially unveiled their self-service mini pantry, the first Priority Partners Cupboards Project in Montgomery County and the fourth in Maryland.
“We are just focusing on our community, and just trying to meet the need right here in 20906,” said Pastor Sherri Wood-Powe, referring to the church on Layhill Road, Silver Spring’s zip code.
Priority Partners operates under the motto, “Take what you need, leave what you can.” That is exactly what already has been happening at Oak Chapel.
The free standing pantry on the church’s parking lot was put up recently. The very next day when Wood-Powe came to the church, “It was fully stocked. We don’t know who stocked it. Someone from the community stocked it,” she said.
In the past few days, even before the pantry’s official unveiling, “People keep bringing food,” she said. “We are so excited to keep feeding the community.”
During the pandemic, church members stepped up to help the food insecure in the area, holding drive throughs for people to pick up food packages and also delivering healthy food to the home bound.
The program continues to grow, and now home bound recipients receive a grocery list. That way, Wood-Powe explained, people get what they like and no unwanted food is tossed out.
Jeff Lehrfeld, chief financial officer at Priority Partners, explained his managed care organization is authorized by the state of Maryland to provide health care services for recipients of Medicaid, Maryland Children’s Health Program and Medical Assistance for Families. It is owned by Johns Hopkins Health Plans and the Maryland Community Health System.
Heather Bruskin, Montgomery County’s director at the Office of Food System Resilience, stressed the importance of continuing to help the food insecure even after much of the affects of the pandemic has receded.
“The challenges related to food insecurity are not going away,” Bruskin said, noting, “The bounty in our county is not equally shared.”
She praised the church and its volunteers. “This is coming from your heart, your dedication, your opportunity to help your neighbors.”
