Meet the Team Behind: Minnie’s Food Pantry

Minnie’s Food Pantry provides healthy meals and educational resources to children and families in NY, PA, and TX. For just $1, Minnie’s is able to provide three healthy meals to low-income individuals living in food deserts. Learn more about their work increasing access to healthy food here!

Can you tell me about your background? 

Minnie’s Food Pantry was named after Dr. Minnie Hawthorne-Ewing, a community leader who believed that it takes more than food to fight hunger. We know that overall wellness begins with food and health education. Our ultimate goal is to provide programs that help families obtain long-term food security and become self-sufficient, breaking the curse of people in low-income areas not having access to fruits and vegetables. With 12 locations across Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania, we’ve provided over 21 million healthy meals to families in need.

What programs do you offer? 

We partner with school districts to deliver food and put pantries inside of schools, and deliver healthy meals to thousands of families with our mobile meal distribution sites at local schools. We also provide children with meals to take home on weekends and school breaks for their families. Similarly, we partner with living facilities to deliver food to seniors, veterans, and the homeless. Every holiday season, we host a Christmas giveaway where children register for a Christmas gift, and we have a Christmas bash for our seniors to prevent them from spending the holiday alone. 

What is your Empowerment Center?

The Empowerment Center is where individuals can participate in a variety of classes and workshops in an effort to empower, encourage, and educate our constituents. These classes include financial literacy, health, wellness, nutrition, job skills training, resume building, Microsoft software classes, and hands-on learning opportunities. For each class completed, participants receive a $50 voucher to Minnie’s Boutique, where they can purchase household items, school supplies, toys, clothing, and more. 

How can individuals get involved in your work? 

Hosting a food drive is the perfect way to partner with Minnie’s and join the fight against hunger— you can collect non-perishable food items and deliver or ship them to our headquarters in Texas. Volunteers are essential to our work, and we are always looking for volunteers to help us with food deliveries, assisting with Minnie’s Boutique, preparing bags, boxes, and trucks of food, and more. We have an Amazon Wishlist where you can directly purchase supplies we need, or you can make a monetary donation on our website.