Food cupboard stays busy in West Chester

The cans of vegetables and soups were endless, and at times no meat was available beyond hot dogs in a few portable coolers.

Volunteers had few choices to offer hungry families four years ago when the West Chester Food Cupboard (WCFC) emerged from the ashes of a bankrupt food charity.

But on a recent afternoon, clients browsed refrigerators stocked with fresh chicken, ground turkey, beef, milk, eggs, and leafy greens. The stock rotates constantly, said Sam Wolfgong, one of the seven lead volunteers, and in general the cupboard looks like a supermarket - without the bill at the end.

"We're really proud of what we're able to offer people now," he said.

Housed in a small building behind the Gay Street Plaza on Route 3 that was once a local campaign headquarters for President Obama, the WCFC is a bustling scene on most weekdays, its lobby often full of families waiting to stock their shopping carts.

The success is the product of its all-volunteer team and donations from churches, individuals, and corporations.

As the only food cupboard in West Chester, the organization feeds close to 600 households each month. And it does so without any appointed leader or salaries. Volunteers are not reimbursed even for gas money when they drive to pick up donations.

"I think many people who look at what we do here are impressed that it works," said Wolfgong, 62. "They'll say, 'There's no boss?' But in some ways that has been good for us. Once people realize no one makes a dime, some are more willing to donate."

The cupboard gets a modest percentage of its donations from the Chester County food bank in Exton, as well as some county funding, subsidies from Philabundance, and donations from major supermarket chains. But in the last fiscal year, half of its donations came from individuals, and the cupboard brought in more than 632,000 pounds of food, Wolfgong said.

For decades, West Chester was served by the CARES Food Network, a clearinghouse for 27 food cupboards in the county. But CARES went bankrupt in 2009, and the timing was particularly painful, given the economic problems and rising unemployment throughout the state.

County officials realized they needed to help, said Ed Breiner, head of the board of directors of the WCFC. They assembled a group of people willing to devote their time and efforts to the new cupboard, including some who had been volunteering at CARES, and provided some modest funding to get the cupboard up and running. Now the cupboard has more than 100 volunteers.

"The demand for these services is tremendous," Breiner said. "Chester County is a pretty lucky place to live for a lot of people. But there's a significant portion of people who are not so fortunate."

In recent years, that has become even more clear to the volunteers.

"We see people who used to be donors who now need to come in as clients," Wolfgong said. "We've had people drive up in an Escalade. They say, 'The car's paid for. My circumstances just changed.' "

Those who want to apply for help can fill out a form listing family income, as well as the names and birth dates of all family members. But the questions end there, Wolfgong said, and those who are eligible can come once a month. The goal is to provide clients with five days' worth of food.

Clients served by the cupboard also can browse the aisles with a volunteer and choose what to take. That means they don't end up with food they can't use, Wolfgong said.

"The nicest thing a client has said to us is that he wished he didn't have to come here, but that he liked coming here because we never made him feel bad," he said. "We try to treat people with respect. And we don't think that any one of us could not be in their position."