Each week, dozens of families are sustained by an unassuming closet at Front Range Community Church. The literal food pantry was jumpstarted by Jennie Bennett in February of 2020 and has been a priceless tool for those scraping through the pandemic.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon in early September. The first snow is falling a bit prematurely in Colorado and Jennie, a mother of three who runs her own photography business, jets back and forth from the food pantry to a volunteer’s car toting a blue bag on each arm. A single bag is filled with enough groceries to feed a family of five for a week. This particular haul contains 22 bags for the students at South Ridge Elementary School.
The food pantry began as an effort by the school system to feed Douglas County High School students in need during the weekends. Front Range Community Church, who formerly met at the school on Sundays, sent volunteers there often. That’s how Jennie, a member of the church, first became acquainted with the program. However, the knowledge that she would be doing such service had been brewing inside of her for some time.
“Seven years ago, God told me I would work in the community in some way,” Jennie says. She was quite busy and unsure of how it could happen. “He kept opening the door for little opportunities.”
One of those opportunities was the food pantry at her church. After serving there for some time, she felt led to expand the program into other schools in the area. Then, while on vacation last holiday season, the lead pastor, Ernest Smith, had a dream. In it, the food pantry was its own nonprofit and serving many other Douglas County Schools. Jennie was leading the charge.
“I don’t have a whole lot of dreams, especially that I remember,” Ernest says. “And they’re hardly ever realistic.” He reached out to Jennie to find out if the dream was God or a case of eating something funky before bed. Little did he know that Jennie was simultaneously feeling the same pull.
Fast-forward to February and the Front Range Food Pantry is an independent 501(c)(3) partnering with Douglas County High School, Soaring Hawk Elementary, and South Ridge Elementary. During the pantry’s first month of operation, the leadership had a difficult time distributing bags.
Due to some miscommunication, families weren’t taking the food from the schools. Jennie was puzzled and frustrated. Then, COVID-19 hit. “When the pandemic began we had all of this excess food ready to give out. We could start immediately,” Jennie says.
The impeccable timing still shocks Jennie. The pantry has provided over 123,040 meals since the 18th of March. According to Fox Business, Douglas County is the 9th wealthiest county in America with a mean income of $120,670. So, it can be surprising to discover that there is such a demonstrated hunger in schools. When job losses surged amidst the Coronavirus, Jennie saw an increase in the need for food. She speculates that many families had to pivot and use all of their finances to keep up high mortgages and other bills. That didn’t leave much, or anything, leftover for a grocery budget.
Pastor Ernest has recognized a silver lining throughout the pandemic. More awareness has been brought to the hunger students face, even in an affluent area like Douglas County. And, more families are willing to ask for help. “We would not have been able to serve this many people without COVID exposing pre-existing needs in the community,” Ernest says. “If you’re humble enough to come to us for food, we’ll give you some,” Jennie adds.
The food pantry could not have had such extreme success without help from the Douglas County community at large. Jennie works with 30 volunteers. She has partnered with local churches and nonprofits, including Orange Theory Fitness, Colorado Feeding Kids, and Dads of Castle Rock. Seniors at Castle View High School gather donations for service hours. Teachers from the schools the food pantry serves volunteer regularly. “I don’t think God ever calls us to do something alone,” Jennie testifies.
The Front Range Food Pantry is growing so that hunger in Douglas County doesn’t have to. Jennie and her volunteers need more help. Their most immediate needs are funds and food. For Jennie, working at the food pantry is so satisfying that she says she would be okay if she never got asked to do photography ever again.
“In this season, this is what I’m supposed to be doing,” Jennie says. “I kept chasing photography, and, even though I love the art, it felt like the wrong thing." For her, it’s about surrendering her own plans— even the ones that seem good on the surface— to run with what God’s doing in the moment.
A full list of the Front Range Food Pantry’s most needed items and services, along with directions on how to sign up to receive food, can be found at: https://www.frontrangefood.org/