Recently, we’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the impact the Dublin Food Pantry has made over the past 50 years. As we approach our annual Bounty at Bridge Park event—a celebration of that incredible legacy—we’re also looking ahead. Because while there’s so much to celebrate about our first five decades, the next 50 years are ours to shape together.
The Next 50 Years Start with Us
The Dublin Food Pantry is rooted in a simple belief: Everyone Eats Here. It is a promise of inclusion, dignity, and care for every member of our community.
For 50 years, that promise has been made possible by people who choose to give in ways that fit their lives. Some give a few hours. Some give a few dollars. Some fill grocery bags, drive delivery routes, organize food drives, or volunteer alongside longtime friends. Some introduce their children to the value of giving for the first time.
Every contribution has a place here, and every contribution helps make our mission possible.
In 2025 alone, the Dublin Food Pantry served 10,487 households and provided 631,041 meals. As our community looks ahead, there is a role for everyone in ensuring our neighbors continue to have access to the food and support they need.
Give as a Family
There is no age requirement for making a difference, and Dublin’s young people are proving it every day.
“We are seeing young people in Dublin discover just how much of an impact they can make,” shared Brian Otte, Executive Director at Dublin Food Pantry. “Earlier this year, 769 kids participated in a Seeds of Caring project benefiting the Dublin Food Pantry, collecting 1,057 dental kits for Pantry customers.”
Families and community groups can create that same kind of impact through the Pantry’s Community Kits. Designed to be assembled at home, at school, or wherever people gather, these kits make it easy to give on a schedule that works for them. Volunteers can assemble Birthday Bags for children celebrating a special day, as well as Breakfast Kits, Personal Hygiene Kits, and Feminine Hygiene Kits.
For Gretchen and Brett Taylor, supporting the Dublin Food Pantry has become a meaningful part of family life. They regularly bring food to the Pantry and intentionally involve their children, using each trip as an opportunity to show that giving is something everyone can do.
The Taylor’s understand that any of us may need support at different points in life—and any of us can help provide it.
“Everyone can get help and everyone can give help.” – Gretchen Taylor
Give Where You Live
Sometimes making a difference can begin right outside your front door.
Through the Dublin Neighborhood FoodShare Program, families, neighbors and kids can work together to collect nonperishable food and personal care products for the Pantry. It’s easy to get involved too; participating households receive reusable green donation bags, fill them with needed items, and place them on their porches on designated collection days.
The program was started to help make giving convenient, consistent, and part of the rhythm of a neighborhood and it’s already making an impact.
One Jerome Village community collected more than 6,560 pounds of food and personal care items between fall 2025 and spring 2026, and will be donating their 1,000th pound of food next week!
Give Your Time
More than 400 volunteers help power the Dublin Food Pantry today, giving their time and talents in countless ways.
For some, one volunteer shift becomes the beginning of a lasting connection. Karen Ernes first volunteered with the Pantry in 2008 and has continued to show up through years of change and growing community need. Over that time, she has seen the volunteer experience evolve alongside the Pantry, from helping customers shop to supporting an operation that now serves families across the community.
Her commitment reflects the impact of volunteers who return week after week, year after year, helping ensure every neighbor can access food with dignity.
“There’s no single way to lend a hand as a volunteer,” shared Brian.
In-Pantry volunteers greet customers, help them register and shop, stock shelves, sort and repackage food, prepare the Pantry for service, accept deliveries and keep refrigerators, freezers and shelves stocked. Drivers extend that work beyond the Pantry’s doors, picking up perishable donations from local grocery stores and community partners.
Whether you have a few hours to give or are looking for a way to make volunteering part of your routine, there’s an opportunity to make your time count.
Give Where the Need Is
As Neighborhood FoodShare shows, supporting the Pantry doesn’t always mean coming through our doors. Sometimes, it means bringing the Pantry—and the food families need—closer to them.
That’s the idea behind our community-based Pop-Up Pantries. Launched in 2025 in partnership with Dublin City Schools and OhioHealth’s Dublin Family Medicine Residency program, Pop-Up Pantries make nutritious food available in familiar, convenient locations. They’re especially important during school breaks and summer months, when students may not have access to the meals they rely on during the school year.
Give What You Can
Maybe your schedule does not allow for a weekly volunteer shift. That is more than okay; there are many meaningful ways to support the Dublin Food Pantry.
You might organize a food, funds, or essentials drive with your workplace, school, church, youth group, friends, or family. You can donate high-need items such as diapers, feminine care products, soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and nonperishable food. Or a financial gift can help the Pantry purchase the items customers need most, when they need them.
The opportunity to make a difference is not defined by the size of a contribution. It begins with the choice to participate.
Your Place in the Next 50 Years
Fifty years of service have been made possible by thousands of individual acts of generosity. A volunteer shift. A bag of groceries. A donation. A family project. A neighbor choosing to help.
The next 50 years begin with the same belief: when our community comes together, everyone has a place and everyone can help make sure Everyone Eats Here.
Find your way to be part of what comes next. Explore volunteer opportunities or donate now.