Pantry Planters bringing food, help to families across the county

Living in Osceola County’s more rural areas—Holopaw, Kenansville, Yeehaw Junction—comes with the benefits of having plenty of elbow room, to roam with animals or to just have plenty of space.

The flip side of that is the distance those folks must go to reach groceries or supermarkets— some 40-minute rides into St. Cloud or even the other direction to Melbourne—adding to the expense of food that inflation is already making uncomfortable.

Pantry Planters, working to get food centers and pantries into local areas, held a ribbon cutting Friday for such a thing, the Holopaw Community Pantry.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida will be making monthly drop-ins and holding regular distributions there. Friday was the first, and Pantry Planters’ Executive Director Tammi Madison said 150 families were served Friday.

“Now that the Holopaw Community Pantry has become an agency with Second Harvest, it gives more options and choices of food for those who live in this community,” she said. “Those are people who normally have to run into St. Cloud to get enough food that only lasts for a few days. You either grow your own, or it’s a long drive. They’re isolated, but now those in Yeehaw or Kenansville can at least go to Holopaw.”

Some of those who were part of Friday’s food pickup said being able to get food locally takes a burden off feeding a whole family.

Madison, who ran the St. Cloud Community Pantry for years before expanding her efforts county wide, said as part of her ongoing work to get needed food closer to those who need it, she’s working to get a client drop site in Kenansville.

Madison’s work with Pantry Planters—providing guidance and mentoring for those who wish to help their communities with food insecurity—is going on two years.

“We’re already at my three-year goal,” she said. “Communities are feeding information into me. They tell me what is in their community and what is their need, which helps a great deal because I don’t want to keep having to catch up, instead of running to catch up we’d like to walk beside (the need).”

And that need is where Madison said she’s focused next: along the U.S. Highway 192 corridor, from Four Corners and headed east, working with hotel owners who house the under-employed. Another of her goals is to establish a small food pantry in every county public school.

“We want to make the public very aware of what’s around them, who’s in the their community, and who needs help,” Madison said.

For more on the effort, go to www.PantryPlanters.org