GOLDEN CORNER FOOD PANTRY

The goal of the Golden Corner Food Pantry is to help clients transition through difficult times or, if chronically poor, to provide basic healthy food needs. The Pantry provides a food distribution once a month including non-perishable food items, fresh produce, milk and eggs, frozen meat, and fresh bread, desserts and refrigerated items such as bagged salads, yogurt and prepared sandwiches. We also help our clients connect with other resources in our community to help them with employment, education, health care, child care, home repair, assistance for veterans, financial help with utilities and rent, and more.

The volunteers at the Golden Corner Food Pantry treat clients with dignity and respect and try to understand their situation. We work to provide food commensurate with their needs and our ability, and also to provide guidance to help clients break the cycle of poverty. Eligible clients can receive food once each month for as long as they need it. For those clients who are chronically poor due to lack of employment at a living wage, or disability, they come to the Pantry almost every month, year after year. For clients with a temporary emergency such as a job loss or unexpected medical expense, they come to the pantry for a month or two until they get back on their feet. To help reduce waste and increase empowerment for clients, we now offer a very popular Client-Choice Shopping option on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. To provide food assistance to Oconee Co. households that cannot get to Seneca, SC due to transportations issues, we now provide a Mobile Food Pantry on the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays of each month. The 2nd Saturday serves Salem, SC and the 3rd Saturday serves Mountain Rest & Long Creek, SC. Each of these locations are 40+ miles round-trip from our main location in Seneca, SC. The assortment of food distributed at the Mobile Pantry sites are much the same as what is distributed at our main location.

The Golden Corner Food Pantry has more than 200 dedicated volunteers, works closely with local government and non profit agencies and churches, and is part of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina network. We receive financial support from individuals, churches, businesses and foundations, and we receive donations of food from local grocery stores, local school groups, churches, scout troops, local businesses, and local farmers.

The Golden Corner Food Pantry continues to pursue Make Life Better efforts with expanded interviews for clients who ask for help beyond food. We provide each client with a resource guide called "Where to turn for help in Oconee County". We take notes about what resources we recommend and then we follow up with them at their next visit to see whether they were able to receive help from the recommended agencies. We also have implemented an "Improved Nutrition" program which provides whole grain cereal, fresh milk, fresh eggs and low sodium canned products for clients as well as fresh vegetables that we purchase. Finally, after holding several client advisory meetings, we have added a very popular Client-Choice Shopping option on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to allow our clients to choose the food that best meets their dietary needs and family preferences, thereby increasing their empowerment and reducing waste. We have started a Mobile Food Pantry in remote areas of Oconee County, SC to bring food assistance to people who cannot get to our Seneca, SC location because of transportation issues. Lastly, we are testing delivery of food to low-income residents of Oconee County who cannot physically get to the pantry because of disability or lack of transportation.