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 […]

We’ve learned many lessons about the fight against hunger through the years. Frankly, if we’re not learning, adjusting and gaining new tools to battle food insecurity in our communities, we wouldn’t be doing the job right. One of the greatest lessons? Fighting hunger doesn’t start with food — it starts with people.  More often than […]