K-Staters give back to community through Harvesters food pantry program
On the third Tuesday of every month, bright and early in the morning, you’ll find
K-State grad Janice Reitz ’84 at CiCo Park surrounded by a shipment of food.
Reitz is a regular volunteer for Harvesters, a regional food bank serving parts of
Kansas and Missouri. CiCo Park is one of the distribution sites in Manhattan, and
it takes a full crew of 15-20 volunteers each month to make this event happen.
Reitz has been volunteering with Harvesters for about 15 years through her church,
College Avenue United Methodist, which sponsors the CiCo Park distribution event every
month. There are a number of organizations in Manhattan — including HandsOn Kansas
State and The Salvation Army — that also sponsor distribution events at different days and times
throughout the month.
The Harvesters organization delivers the food to Manhattan, and then the sponsoring
organizations are in charge of managing the distribution. The distribution at CiCo
Park happens 12 months a year. Even if the weather outside is poor, the need is still
there; cars often start lining up at 7 a.m. for food.
“It takes quite a few of us,” Reitz said. “We’re there rain, snow, hot, whatever.
We have very good, reliable volunteers. It’s amazing how that works. A lot of them
are K-State people.
“We’re all trying to do some good work and help our community and make it a better
place. We get comments from people, and it makes a difference in their lives, having
this extra food.”
K-State student Andrew Phipps, junior in industrial engineering, volunteers with the
Harvesters distribution sponsored by HandsOn Kansas State. He is originally from the
Kansas City area and grew up volunteering at the Harvesters warehouse there. Since
the organization is so close to his heart, he was thrilled to continue volunteering
for the program through K-State.
“It’s definitely a highlight of the month,” he said. “My favorite thing is, of course,
the people. Everyone that I’ve interacted with is a very positive person.”
A team effort
At the CiCo Park distribution event, the group of volunteers starts setting up tables
around 8:30 a.m., and then the 18-wheeler delivery truck arrives around 9:30 a.m.
from a warehouse in Topeka. More volunteers start showing up to help unload and sort
the food.
Even with a large crew of volunteers, there’s still plenty of work to go around. Some
of the people are in charge of dividing up the food donations and determining how
much to give away to each carload, depending on anticipated demand for the day. On
average, the volunteers distribute about 250 units each month (a unit is an allotment
of food for 1-4 people).
The food that is distributed is all fresh, Reitz says, ranging from baked goods like
bread or cupcakes, to produce such as potatoes, cabbage and grapes, to miscellaneous
foods like yogurt or frozen chicken.
Without Harvesters, much of this food would go to waste. The products may be approaching
the end of their shelf life, or the items may not be uniform in size — considered
too large, small or odd-shaped to be placed on grocery store shelves.
“We never know what we’re getting,” Reitz says. “It varies a lot.”
For the HandsOn Kansas State distribution event, which generally takes place on Fridays,
many of the volunteers are students or faculty/staff from the university. The distribution
is conducted drive-thru style in the parking lot by the Chester E. Peters Recreation
Complex. Phipps is in charge of directing traffic and lining up cars in orderly lanes.
K-State President Richard Linton has even come and volunteered at a distribution with
the students.
“It was really fun to have him there,” Phipps said.
Community impact
Phipps said that even though Manhattan is thought of as a well-off community, the
need is still there.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.
Reitz said one of the most important things that Harvesters volunteers learn is that
you never know who in your community may be struggling.
“You see people coming through, a lot of us know some of these people,” she said.
“You just learn not to make any kind of decision or judgment about anything because
you just don’t know the circumstances people are living under. People make too many
assumptions sometimes.”
Phipps also regularly volunteers with the Cats' Cupboard, K-State’s on-campus food pantry, and the Konza Student Table. He sees volunteering as a way to give back and share his time and energy with people
in need.
Reitz finds that she also has been blessed by the experience, meeting lifelong friends
through the volunteer program.
“Working with the people who come — some of these people I didn’t know before they
just showed up to volunteer, and that’s been fun,” she said. “And some of us, if we
have time, we’ll go have lunch together afterwards. We get to talk and share.”
If you are interested in volunteering with the Harvesters program, look for a distribution
site in your area:
