Who We Are

What We Do

The Hancock County Food Pantry secures food and miscellaneous hygiene items through purchases and donations. We serve residents of Hancock County who meet government minimum income guidelines.  We have an 11 member Board of Directors who volunteer their time to oversee the operation/administration of the Pantry 

We operate via a drive-thru distribution process (clients always stay in their vehicle).  Clients drive up to our Pantry and are given a shopping list of food choices to select.  Their selected items are then bagged and then loaded into their vehicle.   Clients may visit our pantry two times each month.

We are a 100% volunteer pantry and serve clients during six shifts each week. We currently have 160+ volunteers working in our building EACH week!

Donations to our pantry can be made online here, checks can be made out to Hancock County Food Pantry and non-perishable items can be placed in the white donation box in the front of our building  

We also have additional food outreach programs in place:

1. Christmas Meal – Extra food for a Christmas meal was distributed to 850+ households in December 2023 (in addition to each client’s normal food allotment). This program is funded by donations to and administered by the Food Pantry.
2. BackSack Program –The BackSack program provides packaged weekend meals to middle and elementary students with food insecurity.  Greenfield Central, St. Michaels, and Eastern Hancock School Systems were served a total of 240 BackSacks per week during the 2023/2024 school year. This program is funded by a generous donor.

The Hancock County Food Pantry served an average of 865 households for the first half of 2024.   We estimate that we distribute 1.5 million pounds of food each year to our clients.  

We frequently ask ourselves the question, “Are we helping or enabling?”  In other words, are we serving our community well, or are creating food dependency? In 2023, 56% of our households visited the pantry 3 times or less in the year. As shown by this statistic, the Food Pantry functioned as a stop-gap measure in their time of need. In 2023, only 18% of the households served visited the Food Pantry more than 12 times in the calendar year. These data demonstrate that the majority of our clientele are those that suffer from temporary food insecurity due to unforeseen life circumstances and rising inflation.

History of our Pantry

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, several ladies in the Faith United Methodist Church in Greenfield began an emergency food box program to assist families in need. In the Fall of 1992, the local Greenfield Ministerial Association learned that the need for the local emergency food box program was growing and began assisting these ladies in this endeavor.

In April 1993, the official Hancock County Food Pantry was launched and for a time, it operated under the non-profit umbrella of the First Church of God, Greenfield. In May of 1994, the Pantry was incorporated and non-profit status was secured in 1995.

Since the beginning in a small closet at Faith United Methodist Church, the Food Pantry has moved to several locations in the Greenfield area. As the client base grew, so did the requirement for more space. In 1999, the Pantry began a partnership with the Hancock Hope House to serve people’s basic needs for shelter and food. By 2009, the Pantry had outgrown its space next to the Hope House Thrift Store. The Pantry moved to its previous location at 741 ½ South State Road 9, Greenfield in the Spring of 2009. As of December 4th, 2023, the Pantry has grown once again, and now stands in its current location at 2040 W. Main St. in Greenfield.

Our current Pantry location has approximately 7,200 square feet, an open-sided canopy for serving clients, a new walk-in cooler/freezer for food storage, improved client and traffic flow, and will help serve the next generation of clients and volunteers. During 2023, the Pantry averaged 809 families each month.

The Pantry is a 100% volunteer-based organization. No donations are spent on personnel. All of our stocking/ordering/client-assistants/and other staff are committed volunteers who seek to help those in need.

Non-perishable items can be placed in the white donation box in the front of our building