On a quiet side street in Shoemakersville, veterans and military families have found an oasis. The Keystone Military Families Pantry, which opened its new home on Noble Street just two months ago, provides food, household items, clothing and furniture – for free – for those who have given so much.
Serving 45 to 60 families each week, the pantry is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. There, with the help of volunteers, veterans and active-service military families can anonymously select items to supplement their household. According to executive director Kyle Lord, there are so many people who need food that, once items are dropped off, they quickly find a home. While the pantry is always in need of donations, making sure families get enough isn’t because of limited supply. According to Lord, volunteers sometimes have to urge patrons to take more.
“Part of the military mentality is to look out for each other,” Lord said. “They will take half of what they need to make sure someone else gets what they need, too.”
Kyle Lord has been making sure those who serve get what they need for a long time. When her son, Sgt. 1st Class Brent Lord, was deployed with the Army National Guard seventeen years ago, Lord did what most military mothers do – she thought of a way to support her soldier. In 2002, Lord started Keystone Soldiers, an organization that sent care packages and Christmas stockings to military personnel overseas.
That organization, now known as Stockings For Soldiers, eventually served so many that it outgrew Lord’s Fleetwood home. In 2008, during the economic downturn, Lord realized that it wasn’t only deployed soldiers who needed support – the families left at home often struggled. She established Keystone Military Families, a pantry supported solely by public donations. When Lord learned earlier this year that the Leesport warehouse she was using would be sold, she paired up with Keystone Wounded Warriors to find another place.
“They said they would lease a space if we found something big enough for both of us,” she said. “But when we saw the building in Shoemakersville, they decided to buy it. The price was right and the location was great – right in the middle of town.” In September, Lord and her staff of volunteers began filling the new location with household goods to make life a little easier for military families.
“When troops are deployed, they make less money than when they’re home,” Lord said. “Essentially, the family left behind becomes a single-parent household with an ongoing mortgage, two car payments and all the usual bills.”
At the pantry, any veteran, active military or immediate family member is eligible to come in and take what they need, provided they show a military ID, live in Pennsylvania or are attached to a Pennsylvania unit. Fresh and canned food, toiletries, office supplies, some used appliances, clothing and furniture are among the items stocked on shelves in their large warehouse.
Lord said that providing the necessities of life takes a little pressure off of those in military service. “By getting the food they need here, they can spend the money they would have spent to pay for electric bills, gas bills and doctors’ bills instead,” she said. “Deployment is hard enough to go through without having financial difficulties.” The pantry also offers pet food donated by the organization Pets of the Homeless. “We get a huge load, about a thousand pounds of dog, cat and gerbil food, each month,” said Lord. “If veterans have to give up their pets because they can’t afford to feed them, that’s one more level of stress they have to deal with.”
As a resource center, the non-profit pantry doesn’t just cover domestic needs. Lord brings in people from other organizations to provide supportive services. Benefits and healthcare counseling are offered through the outreach coordinators from the Lebanon Veterans Administration hospital. Shoemakersville bookstore owner Vernie Noecker will offer basic cooking classes for veterans and their families at Zion’s Lutheran Church in November and December.
“We saw that some people were taking six cans of Chef Boyardee each week, and we knew that would be their dinner every night,” Lord explained. “Vernie offered to hold the cooking classes to teach people nutrition, budgeting and cooking. People don’t just need food; they need emotional security.”
Lord said she has been amazed by the community’s response since moving into the building a few months ago.
“I’m so proud of the way people have come together to help. The Hamburg VFW and American Legion have been great,” Lord said. “When the VFW found out we were low on food, they showed up with a check. People just walking down the street have stopped in to ask what we do and if they can help.”
Because they rely on the public to stock their shelves, the organization can always use donations of food, toiletries and furniture.
“In some cases, we’re helping vets who have been homeless and are now in apartments or other facilities,” Lord said. “They need all kinds of furniture.” Lord’s volunteers are still renovating the warehouse, so she asked that people hold off on donations of clothing until after the holidays when she can install drywall and hanging racks to the exposed-brick warehouse that once housed a sewing factory.
“We have used some of our monetary donations for renovating,” she said. “But most of the electric work was done pro bono by two electricians.”
Donations of time, talent and treasure are welcomed.
In addition to her work overseeing the pantry, Lord continues to manage the Stockings for Soldiers program. This year, they will put together and send 6,000 stockings to deployed personnel overseas.
“Our stockings are handmade by a senior living center where the youngest resident is 86 years old,” Lord said. “They work all year long making stockings for us to fill with toiletries and snacks.”
Lord said it will cost $39,000 to ship the stockings, but it’s worth it.
“Everyone on our list is signed up by a serviceman, family member or someone posted ‘in country’ who sees when a soldier isn’t getting any mail from back home,” she said. “It’s a shame that their stockings have to be filled with items they need, like socks, but we always try to include a little stuffed animal so they get a smile when they first see it.”
Donations, cards and volunteer help are needed to complete all the stockings, which will be sent by Dece. 6 at the latest. To help defray costs, the public may send donations to Keystone Military Families, 16 E. Noble Street, Shoemakersville, PA 19555. To donate food or household items, call Kyle Lord at 610-698-2122. Find out more ways you can help at www.keystonesoldiers.com or on Facebook at Military Family Pantry at Keystone Soldiers.