Photo by Sherelle BlackGRACE Food Pantry manager
Known for pioneering nonprofit Grapevine Relief And Community Exchange's self-serve food pantry, Rusty Thigpen helps serve the more than 7,600 individuals in Greater Northeast Tarrant County who visit the pantry each year. The pantry, which opened in September 2006, gives away an average of 676,000 pounds of food each year, he said.
With more than 1,700 households served annually at the pantry, some of Thigpen's responsibilities include making sure that the pantry remains stocked, raising more awareness of the pantry and making sure the nonprofit has enough volunteers to keep the pantry running efficiently.
Thigpen helps manage more than 60 volunteers who are scheduled regularly to help restock food, check out clients and sort out food from food drives. Thigpen also helps oversee GRACE's community garden, which together with donations produces an estimated 3,000 pounds of fresh produce for the food pantry each year.
Additionally, GRACE provides 38,500 meals through its GRACE Feed Our Kids program, which provides meals for children from low-income families during summer months.
The food pantry also provides Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets to families in need.
As an agency, GRACE served 5,130 individuals and provided over 28,000 unique services last year.
What were you doing before becoming GRACE's pantry manager?
Before I started working with GRACE I was working at Christian Community Action in Lewisville at their donation center. I was there for 10 years before the pantry position became open. When I came on board in 2000 one of my goals was to help GRACE open a pantry where people could come in and pick out the items themselves. They could save their dignity and not have to ask people for help unless they wanted it.
Having been at the current pantry since its birth, what are some of the changes you have witnessed over the years?
I watched us grow from being able to just provide two bags of groceries to a family of six to giving them $150 to shop in the pantry. With that $150 they can normally get groceries that will last them a week. However, if they shop smart it can last much longer. Also, when we first started we didn't carry diapers, hygiene items or paper items such as toilet paper. Toilet paper is not often thought of as a necessity, but we've come to realize if these families are having trouble getting food they probably are in need of these paper items as well. We have also seen a growth in the need of our pantry as well as in the number of people who know about us.
What do you enjoy most about working at the pantry?
I enjoy coming in and working with the volunteers and staff, but I love working with the clients I serve. Just yesterday I helped a family shop for an hour and a half, which is really special because typically a family only spends 30 minutes shopping in the pantry. When clients ask us for help with shopping it gives us an opportunity to help them make the most out of their money and educate them about how to stay on budget. Seeing the joy on their face when they leave the pantry with bags of food is priceless.
In the wintertime it is sometimes hard to keep the pantry stocked.What are some ways that you get word out to the community about the pantry's needs?
While anybody can drop off food at the pantry, we have organizations, businesses and churches that often collect food for us. We have a monthly food pantry list that lists everything that the pantry is low [on] or out of for that month, and we post it on social media, on our website and distribute it to our community partners. We are constantly going places to talk about GRACE and our pantry. There is a huge need in this area, but there is also a huge outpouring of generosity from the community, from groups and individuals bringing in items from that list to large corporations like Wal-Mart and Target pitching in, and of course the Tarrant Area Food Bank helps.
The pantry was recently able to obtain brand-new checkout counters made possible through a $2,000 grant from the Tarrant Area Food Bank. How has that changed the checkout process?
Before we were using folding tables to check out clients. For years we have been wanting new counters but didn't really have the money for it. With the grant we were able to partner with JR Buzzell of Buzzell Wood Craft, and he was able to bring my drawings to life. Now with these counters we are able to check out two families at once.
GRACE Food Pantry
837 E. Walnut St., Grapevine, 817-305-4676, www.gracegrapevine.org
Hours: Mon., Tues., Thurs. and Fri. 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Wed. 1–6 p.m.
