Kerux: a portfolio of Calvin Theological Seminary - Volume 42.10 - 17 Apr 2008

Nooks and Crannies: The Idema Food Pantry

An Inside Look at the Seminary’s Supermarket

by Chelsey Harmon

The Idema Food Pantry. It’s that place downstairs you go at least once a week when you forgot your lunch or made a grocery list and then realized you lacked the money to actually buy the items on your list. It’s a place that has been part of our Seminary community for over ten years. It’s also something very unique to our school community. Ask any student that has gone on to do Ph.D. work somewhere else and they will probably tell you how much they miss it.

It’s easy to see why the Idema Food Pantry is such a great thing. It helps over ninety Seminary families and individuals make ends meet each week by providing everything from the staple can of kidney beans or pears to the rarer jug of laundry detergent. (My personal favorite is the in-shower body lotion from Oil of Olay; you can find it in the “Health Products” cupboard by the exit) Most of the food comes from Second Harvest Gleaners; Debra Vandermeer, the current volunteer coordinator, told me that the Idema Food Pantry spends about $150 a week on food and other items—less than two dollars per family that walks through its doors! Second Harvest Gleaners charges by the pound at 11 cents per pound, which means the Idema Food Pantry is restocked with about 1100 pounds of supplies per week. It is suggested that each family donate 1-2 dollars per week for using the Idema Food Pantry, but such donations are rare. Imagine if this wasn’t the case! Think of how much more food we’d be able to buy if each of us did donate just a dollar. I’ll tell you so you don’t have to do the math: 818 pounds. Now that’s a lot of Oil of Olay in-shower body lotion! The extra money could also help us buy more meat and other, rarer items.

Volunteers are also crucial to the continued viability of the food pantry. Volunteers from our very own community, (hopefully you are one of them!), pick up the food, unload it, and every Wednesday spend about two hours restocking the shelves. This is because the Idema Food Pantry is run like a co-op, meaning there is no “owner.” Instead, all of the people who benefit from the services provided are required to help run it and keep it going.

Besides Second Harvest Gleaners, volunteers go to Eastern Ave. CRC’s Saturday morning food program and are able to pick up a lot of fresh and in-season food (bell peppers, onions, and the like) for free. Then there is the occasional donation from some gracious family or hunting party that drop off stuff with Ina DeMoor. You know you were wondering about those pheasants and ground venison.

What you may be wondering, however, is why the shelves seem a bit barer downstairs. That’s because with government budget cuts, the Idema Food Pantry lost its USDA government funding. You may also be wondering what’s going to happen in the future with the Idema Food Pantry leadership. Debra Vandermeer will be ending her run as volunteer coordinator this year when her husband Jeff Vandermeer graduates. It’s always been difficult to find people with the time and abilities to run the Idema Food Pantry, and with some of the challenges such a position faces, Student Senate and the Administration has decided to make the Idema Food Pantry and Clothes Closet Coordinator a paid, year-round position.

This is an exciting change to the way things are done downstairs, but it will not change the fact that the Idema Food Pantry depends on our volunteering to keep it running. So I encourage you to continue to faithfully do your part downstairs, and to consider whether or not you know someone that would do a good job as Coordinator. Information will be posted on the Student Senate bulletin board soon! And next time you go downstairs to grab some food for lunch, don’t forget to put your dollar in the bucket. If you can buy two gourmet cups of coffee for class, you can put a dollar in to help feed your family.