Rural Food Pantries Need More Than Food: The Hidden Costs of Fighting Hunger

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 food pantries like Olean Food Pantry.

The real cost of fighting hunger goes far beyond what’s inside free grocery bags bags taken home from the pantry each week. To serve thousands of families across Cattaraugus, Allegany and Chautauqua counties, we must maintain infrastructure, logistics, volunteer staffing and safety protocols — all of which carry hefty price tags.

Let’s take a closer look at the hidden costs of operating a rural hunger relief program, and why grant funding and major gifts are critical to keeping this vital community service alive.

The Most Common Challenges to Providing Rural Hunger Relief 

From transportation and utilities to storage and technology, rural food pantries like ours face many obstacles to managing hunger relief efforts. Here are just a few to consider.

1. Transportation: The Rural Access Challenge

Western New York is a large chunk of land, where hundreds of thousands lack easy access to even the bare necessities. Olean Food Pantry’s tri-county service area (3,416 sq. miles) is nearly 2.5 times larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Transportation itself is a limiting factor for many people we serve. Unlike urban areas, where clients may be within walking distance of services, many OFP clients travel miles for food access across seasonal roads in often dangerous weather conditions. When they can get to a local grocery store, they next face the question of whether groceries are even affordable. 

That’s the very definition of a food desert.  

Despite these challenges, we coordinate with community partners to provide regular access to groceries for people with limited transportation options – including homebound seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Gas isn’t cheap. Neither are vehicle maintenance and insurance for the volunteers who drive the same roads as clients to work the pantry and organize mobile services.

Without adequate funding to support transportation, rural hunger relief organizations like OFP risk leaving our most vulnerable neighbors behind.

2. Refrigeration & Storage: Keeping Food Safe

Food to serve over 2,000 people per month doesn’t just appear on our shelves and stay fresh on its own. We rely on:

• Refrigerators and freezers to preserve perishable items like milk, eggs, meat and produce.
• Commercial shelving and storage space to organize thousands of pounds of donated and purchased food, as well as household supplies.
• Backup power solutions to prevent spoilage during outages (especially during harsh Western NY winters).
  

These systems require electricity, maintenance and eventual replacement. And they’re all non-negotiable in providing safe, nutritious food to our communities.

In 2024, our rural food pantry received a generous grant from the F.T. and Anna C. Manley Memorial Trust to replace an outdated freezer. OFP depends on continual support from grant funders and philanthropists for new equipment and maintenance.  

3. Utilities & Overhead: Feeding Families Requires Power

Our food pantry at 8 Leo Moss Drive, Olean, is a welcoming, accessible space for every individual and family in need. But every light turned on, every computer run, and every refrigerator plugged in adds to our monthly utility bill.

That’s why we’re pursuing our solar panel installation project, which will save nearly $200,000 in utility costs over 25 years. Grants and donations toward this much-needed infrastructure project represent high-impact funding — with ripple effects that will sustain rural hunger relief for decades.

It’s a smart investment to reduce overhead and reinvest those savings into food access and operational strength.

4. Technology & Client Systems: Data Drives Strategy

In today’s nonprofit landscape, measurable outcomes matter. Donors and funders need to see where their dollars go — and rightly so.

To track food distribution, assess community needs and provide accurate grant reporting, rural hunger relief organizations rely on digital tools and secure client data systems. These tools:

• Measure how many individuals we serve.
• Track the volumes of food and household supplies distributed.
• Monitor pantry inventory.
• Help us respond quickly during crisis surges (like winter storms or economic shocks).
  

Technology isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity for transparency, efficiency and accountability. Once again, in 2025, the Manley Trust stepped up in a big way to fund IT and security upgrades in partnership with Acme Business of Olean, NY.  

High-Impact Giving to Fight Rural Hunger: Understanding the Full Picture

Thanks to preferred nonprofit pricing and regional food partnerships, every dollar we receive can stretch up to 100% farther than at the average grocery store. But to mobilize those dollars in the War on Hunger, we need reliable infrastructure, utilities and logistics. 

Olean Food Pantry is not just handing out free food. We’re operating a sophisticated, volunteer-powered system to ensure that no one in our region goes hungry. We’re a nonprofit with high grant impact potential, but like many rural food pantries, we can’t do it alone. 

If you’re a donor, grantmaker or foundation looking for a rural nonprofit making a measurable, lasting impact — look no further.

We need:

• Operational grants to support infrastructure and logistics.
• Major gifts to fund sustainable solutions like solar energy.
• Community champions who understand that food access equals community health, economic opportunity and dignity.
  

When you support Olean Food Pantry, you’re not just funding free groceries for people experiencing food insecurity. You’re fueling the systems that make hunger relief possible. 

Help Us Power our Rural Hunger Mission

Let’s work together to ensure no one in Western New York has to choose between food and heat and affording medical bills. Let’s make the invisible costs visible — and fund them with compassion, strategy and hope.

Click here to make your tax-deductible donation today!