A Well-Stocked Cupboard Volunteers Fuel Nelsonville Food Pantry
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Story by Justin Thompson | Photos by Carlin Stiehl
n a cold Saturday in February, the sidewalk outside of the Nelsonville Food Cupboard is covered in a thick slab of ice. On another day of the week, it might not be a problem. But Saturday is a distribution day, and from noon to three a steady stream of volunteers are tasked with lugging boxes filled with food across the icy thoroughfare. However, Capi Huffman isn’t fazed by the icy terrain. She conducts the pantry’s activities on Saturdays, and she wastes no time pulling her jacket up over her face mask, grabbing a snow shovel and stepping out into the winter sun. Cracks and crunches pierce the air, and the ice starts to chip away. There are easier jobs to do, especially on a day so cold, but before long the slippery sheet is reduced to hundreds of harmless chips. There is another problem waiting for her when she comes back inside. A black sedan just pulled up, and the
driver is from Logan. He needs food, but the cupboard is only supposed to supply it to people from Athens County. Back inside, Chelsea Dunfee-Rivas is sitting down at a small wooden desk in the corner, typing furiously on her laptop keyboard. When someone drives up and requests a box of food, she enters their information into PantryTrak, a program designed to link food pantries across the country so they can share data. When she sees that he’s from Logan, she calls Huffman over. For a minute or two, they deliberate in whispers. The man from Logan is waiting in his car, and, whether he knows it or not, his dinner might be hanging in the balance. Huffman sighs and adjusts her mask. “Let’s give it to him. I’m sure he needs it,” she says. The main room of the food cupboard is dimly lit and separated by a shoulder-high wall that splits the room into front and back sections. In the back, the boxes of
Capi Huffman loads food into a recipient’s truck.
16 | Summer/Fall 2021
