Supporting a rural food pantry. What does that bring to mind? Most tend to think about donations of canned goods and fresh produce. Some also come bearing gifts of diapers and baby formula. While those essentials are the heartbeat of any hunger relief mission, they’re just the beginning of the story — especially for rural […]

Walk through the doors of Olean Food Pantry on any given distribution day, and you’ll witness something quietly powerful: how food pantry donations and other contributions truly make a difference.  Quietly powerful. What does that mean? It means so much is happening behind the scenes to address hunger at a grassroots level. You’ll spot volunteers […]

Local food pantries everywhere believe in a simple yet powerful truth: compassion always wins. Olean Food Pantry’s mission is clear: to fight food insecurity in Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. But that mission doesn’t start just by providing free food. It starts with understanding. (Think about it: you can’t fight a serious problem without first […]

Today, we’re taking a deep dive into the link between poverty and food insecurity. At Olean Food Pantry, we meet hundreds of families each week whose lives have been shaped — and shaken — by hunger.  While each person’s story is uniquely their own, there’s one undeniable thread that connects them all: financial struggle. Food […]