What is the difference between a food pantry, soup kitchen, and food bank?
Guest Responder: Carrie McCormack, Lakeview Pantry West Coordinator
My name is Carrie McCormack and I have been an employee of Lakeview Pantry since fall of 2002. I coordinate the day-to-day operations of obtaining food and giving it out to those who need it. I work directly with clients, volunteers, donors, businesses and community organizations. All across the board, the termoinology involved with food distribution gets confused, so I thought I would write this post to clarify some common terms.
A shelter is a place that houses people either temporarily or on a longer term basis. Some shelters operate on an emergency need basis while others have certain criteria that must be fulfilled to stay there. These sites usually provide hot meals, or at least an evening meal and a light breakfast, for their residents.
A soup kitchen is a place that serves hot meals that clients can sit down and eat. Most soup kitchens have a regular schedule, such as dinner every Tuesday or lunch every first Sunday of the month. Oftentimes the meals are prepared by volunteers.
A food pantry is a place that provides groceries, or ingredients, to those in need who then take these items away to prepare themselves.
A food bank is a depository that collects and stores food items that they then distribute to soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, day care centers, after school programs, senior programs, and other certified service agencies that serve food.
Sometimes we are referred to as a food shelter,which is not a term that is used in the social service industry. I'm not sure what a food shelter would be but it sounds like a place which keeps food safe, like your kitchen pantry at home. We are a pantry and do keep food safe, so maybe people are onto something!
So in short, Lakeview Pantry is a food pantry that receives a portion of its food from a food bank. We provide clients with two weeks worth of groceries, but no food is prepared on site and no one resides overnight on our premises. While food distribution is our main activity, we also provide clothing and household items free of charge and we also distribute hygeine items if we have them. In addition, we have a case management program that among other things, provides emergency financial assistance and referrals to other agencies.
My name is Carrie McCormack and I have been an employee of Lakeview Pantry since fall of 2002. I coordinate the day-to-day operations of obtaining food and giving it out to those who need it. I work directly with clients, volunteers, donors, businesses and community organizations. All across the board, the termoinology involved with food distribution gets confused, so I thought I would write this post to clarify some common terms.
A shelter is a place that houses people either temporarily or on a longer term basis. Some shelters operate on an emergency need basis while others have certain criteria that must be fulfilled to stay there. These sites usually provide hot meals, or at least an evening meal and a light breakfast, for their residents.
A soup kitchen is a place that serves hot meals that clients can sit down and eat. Most soup kitchens have a regular schedule, such as dinner every Tuesday or lunch every first Sunday of the month. Oftentimes the meals are prepared by volunteers.
A food pantry is a place that provides groceries, or ingredients, to those in need who then take these items away to prepare themselves.
A food bank is a depository that collects and stores food items that they then distribute to soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, day care centers, after school programs, senior programs, and other certified service agencies that serve food.
Sometimes we are referred to as a food shelter,which is not a term that is used in the social service industry. I'm not sure what a food shelter would be but it sounds like a place which keeps food safe, like your kitchen pantry at home. We are a pantry and do keep food safe, so maybe people are onto something!
So in short, Lakeview Pantry is a food pantry that receives a portion of its food from a food bank. We provide clients with two weeks worth of groceries, but no food is prepared on site and no one resides overnight on our premises. While food distribution is our main activity, we also provide clothing and household items free of charge and we also distribute hygeine items if we have them. In addition, we have a case management program that among other things, provides emergency financial assistance and referrals to other agencies.
posted by Lakeview Pantry at 9:00 AM
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