Food Pantries Lean on Volunteers — and on Word of Mouth

Community pantries tend to have the same two needs in the same order: steady volunteers and steady publicity. Supplies often arrive; the schedule of who unloads and sorts them is harder to fill.

Radio still does something a social feed does not — it reaches people while their hands are busy. A pantry announcement read on a weekday morning tends to bring calls the same afternoon.

WXIO reads community service announcements at no charge for nonprofit outreach in the listening area. Send the date, the address, and a contact to our request line.

If you have a few hours to give, the shortest route is usually to call a neighborhood church office and ask who coordinates their pantry week.