MCARTHUR, Ohio — The Renovate Life Church of God is operating its food pantry and seeking alternate meal-delivery options after floodwater damaged the church, The Athens Messenger reported.
The pantry distributes food to 500 people each week in McArthur and ranks as Ohio's eighth-largest food pantry, according to the newspaper. Its van delivers 350 meals weekly, while about 150 people typically collect meal bags from the church parking lot on Tuesdays between 4 and 6 p.m., pantry co-president Rhonda Woodard told the Messenger. Bags feed as many as four people and mix canned, frozen and fresh items; the most recent bags contained spaghetti and tomato sauce, navy beans, peanut butter, green beans, pears, apples, fish sticks and two frozen pizzas.
The pantry missed its previous week's parking-lot distribution because of flooding but resumed Tuesday, the Messenger reported. Demand has increased. Normally about 154 people come on Tuesdays, but 226 had arrived by 5 p.m. with an hour left, pastor James Dimel said. He also reported more than 400 calls over the prior week from people asking whether food would be available.
Vinton County has two full-service grocery stores, Campbell's Market on West Main Street and DG Market on North Market Street, the Messenger reported. Dimel said DG Market's shelves ran low when flooding isolated the county, and Dollar General in Londonderry, in Ross County, closed because of damage, sending some residents to McArthur. The church took on nearly four feet of water and was still recovering from summer flooding, Dimel said.
Dimel described the damage as unlike anything he had seen and said the church sustained heavy losses. The pantry lost seven freezers holding $25,000 in food and a $20,000 delivery van, while items for its annual October Porktoberfest were also destroyed, the Messenger reported. The church has received donations but learned its insurance policy, despite natural-disaster coverage, will not pay for rebuilding; Dimel said it is counting on FEMA assistance.