OUR mission is to provide essentials to the community
Today, the Center’s Food Program provides supplemental food to over 600 families a year – most of these ON A MONTHLY BASIS.
Individuals and families enrolled in the Center’s Food Program receive monthly bags of food, ranging from staples such as rice and peanut butter, to fruit and vegetables, to occasional holiday treats. This allows for more variety in meal planning in the home, and gives many families in our community a “boost” at the end of the month, when money for essential food is scarce.
We also provide emergency food bags to those that come to the Center in crisis.
Around the holidays, Food Program registrants receive turkeys and hams for holiday dinners, and parents are eligible to participate in the Toy Day Distribution, allowing them to choose several new and gently used toys to give their children on Christmas.
Please check our calendar for FOOD DAY monthly dates!
Anyone registered with the Food Program at POPC can arrive to receive their food bags.
Distribution times are between 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM.
Open enrollment for our monthly food & holiday list runs from January 1 - September 30.
A special food-only list begins on October 1.
SOUP Kitchen
Mondays and Wednesdays (excluding holidays) from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, POPC hosts a community meal, free and open to the public. All meals are served take-away style.
Our doors open to our neighbors, welcoming anyone who wishes to share a delicious meal prepared by groups of volunteer cooks and meal servers. These groups are well-established at the Center; many of our regular Soup Kitchen volunteers have kept our dining area in good hands for years.
The Center’s Soup Kitchen has served community meals since the program expanded in 1999.
Many local businesses donate food items to us on a regular basis. When community organizations and schools host food drives for the Center, anything collected is then distributed through the Food Program too. In 2014, 91,376.6 pounds of food came in as donations from various local sources. That’s almost 45 tons of food – which we distributed to those in food crises throughout the year!