48. Wendy Osborne with 'Tabitha's Way' Food Pantry and Helping People Through Tough Times by Providing Temporary Food Assistance

Wendy Osborne was working in a corporate career when she found herself on a spiritual journey and felt inspiration come that she needed to open a local food pantry in her community. She decided to name the pantry ‘Tabitha’s Way’ after a story from the Bible about a woman who provided food and clothing to the needy. That was in 2010, and now their pantry operates out of three different locations in Utah County, serving thousands of people each month. 

I learned a lot in this interview! It was fascinating to learn the logistics of the ways a food pantry works and how they fill in the gap of taking surplus from businesses and organizations in the community and distributing that to those in need. I loved hearing the stories Wendy shared about families and individuals they’ve served. At the end of the episode, she shares her thoughts about how food insecurity is a problem that can be solved by everyone in the community working together.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about ‘Tabitha’s Way’. You might also feel inspired for how you can help people in need of food assistance in your own community.

Links mentioned in the show:
Tabitha's Way Food Pantry Website
Tabitha's Way Food Pantry Instagram
Tabitha's Way Food Pantry Facebook
Urban Institute

Follow the podcast on social media:
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Transcript

Melissa: You're listening to the do something more podcast, and this is episode number 48 with Wendy Osborne and Tabitha's Way local food pantry, helping people through tough times by providing temporary food assistance. Welcome to the do Something more podcast, a service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. And I'm looking forward to this conversation because we are talking today to Wendy Osborne. She's the executive director and founder of Tabitha's Way, a local food pantry in Utah county. And I have for a long time admired a lot of the good work that they do. So I just feel honored that Wendy was willing to come on the podcast and share with us about the good things that Tabitha's way is doing. So, Wendy, welcome to the show.

Wendy: Oh, Melissa, thank you so much. And the honor is all just. I love every opportunity that we have to share about Tabitha's way and what we're doing and just to speak about the cause that we know working towards. And so thank you so much for the invitation.

Melissa: Yes, most definitely. Well, let's start, Wendy, just why don't you give a little introduction of yourself, and then you can go into just a quick introduction also of Tabitha's way.

Wendy: Okay, well, so a little bit about myself. So I started here in Spanish Fork, my family. I raised my three sons here and happily married for 36 years and have lived in Utah for about 37. So a little bit of a transplant, but I love this community and I love this place. So Tabitha's way. It's Tabitha's way. Local food pantry. Tabitha's way currently has three locations, one in Spanish Fork. Yeah, kind of crazy to think about. So one in spanish fork, one in american fork, and also one that we just. A satellite pantry that we just opened up in Saratoga Springs. Our Saratoga Springs location was opened up in November of this year, and the american fork was opened up with my partners, Al Switzler and Mike Carter, who are the co founders for the american fork Pantry location, and they helped with, basically started the Saratoga location as well.

Melissa: That's great. Well, food insecurity is not something that I think is a new topic or concept for a lot of people. But what was the personal driving force for you to start the pantry and do what you did?

Wendy: It's kind of a funny story. I actually was in telecommunications, and I loved my career in telecommunications. It was a lot of fun, but I kind of got to the spot in my life where I was on a spiritual journey and really trying to live a life that was no longer just about me and connecting with God and connecting with other people. And the name Tabitha's way comes from a woman in the Bible. So in the Bible, in the book of acts, chapter nine, verse 36 through 42, is a story of a woman named Tabitha, and she provided food and clothing for people in her community. And I was praying and meditating on this scripture when God basically just said, hey, Wendy, I want you to leave your career in telecommunications and start a food pantry. And voila. Here we are, nearly, almost 14 years now, later. So in 2010, June of 2010.

Melissa: That's great. And there's a lot of logistics, I'm sure, with coordinating all of these local pantries and fulfilling the need for so many in the county. So what are some of the logistics? How do you coordinate? How have you managed the growth? Where do you get the food that you donate to others from? How does that all work? Just in a nutshell?

Wendy: That's a great question. So I'm going to start with the food, because the food will maybe help really explain some of the logistics. We have a program that's called our Grocery Rescue program, where a large portion, or actually most of our fresh foods come from our grocery rescue program. So we go out and partner with local grocery stores, Costco, Walmart, Smith's, and also small grocery stores, stokes just all of these good earth food stores and also some restaurants, Olive Garden, chick fil a, all participate in storing their excess food or their surplus foods. And we have grocery, we have trucks, refrigerated trucks that go out and pick up food from the local grocery stores. And again, that's where food donations come from. A lot of people don't realize, for example, we cannot take, like, if you were to buy a gallon of milk and bring it to our pantry, we can actually receive milk or items that require temperature control from the general public. We have to get it from either a food producer or a food reseller or wholesaler. So fresh foods come from our grocery rescue program. A lot of these shelf stable food donations come from the public. So a lot of schools do food drives. Church organizations do food drives. Businesses and civic organizations will hold food drives. There's actually coming up here soon, the scouting for food drive, and then, of course, the feed Utah Food drive, which is hosted by the Utah Food bank and other organizations, and then the letter carriers food drive. And we're also always open to receive. Maybe I had a gentleman come in one day. This is kind of a funny story. But a gentleman came in one day, and he had, like, 20 boxes of cereal. And I said, wow, thank you for this donation of cereal. And I was curious as to why he had 20 boxes of the same kind of cereal. And I guess he was a couponer, and he would use coupons and buy food, and he brought home. He was so proud of his purchase. He brought home all of these boxes of cereal, and lo and behold, none of his kids would eat that cereal. So we got these beautiful boxes of food donations from him. So food donations from the public. So that's kind of where our food comes from, logistic wise. Again, we have those three pantry locations where people can come to our food pantries. They are full time, full size food pantries that offer a variety of food to anyone in need in our community that is struggling with food. Yeah. So our trucks are out picking up food drives and food donations from stores, through a grocery rescue program and from, like, manufacturers. We've had food manufacturers or suppliers that are here. Cisco foods. There are several different organizations. Maybe they're a healthy food organization and they have a surplus of food, and they'll call us and say, we've got a few pallets of food. Would you like to come pick them up? Like, absolutely, we'll come pick them up. So we have trucks that you'll see out on I 15, on the city roads as well, driving around, picking up food. So really, it's about getting the food that's out there, the surplus that's out there, and then to our food pantry and then into our food pantry and distribute it out to the families that are coming into our pantries.

Melissa: Wow, that is a huge operation, just like any grocery store would be running or any other.

Wendy: Yeah, yeah, lots. So it really does take a so. And we're so grateful and blessed by those know, really, in the United States, we don't have a lack of food. We have actually a surplus of food, but it's a matter of getting that surplus of food to our facilities and out to the families that need it, which is largely what food pantries like. If you were to come into our food pantries and our warehouses, we would look like a food warehouse and like a grocery store when you walk in. So very much like a grocery store.

Melissa: Right. And, yeah. Serving that need of kind of filling in the dots of getting the surplus food to those that can use it.

Wendy: Yeah, exactly.

Melissa: So I would love to, now that you've given us a little insight about that direction of things to go now the other way around to someone that is needing assistance, wanting to come into the pantry, what is their experience like? What can they expect through that experience?

Wendy: Anyone who needs assistance, we recommend if they can first go to our website, which is tabithasway.org, and click on the need help or get help tab. And it'll first help kind of identify what pantry is closest to you. And then from there, once we know which pantry is closest to you, because we don't want to waste resources like gas getting to the right place. It also tells you what our hours of operation is. And you can make a reservation or just come in, make an appointment or come in and depending on the pantry location you're going to, and then come in and we'll sit. The first time, when they come in, we have them meet with an intake specialist or an intake volunteer that kind of helps them create a pantry account and kind of explains process of getting food. And then we'll walk them through. We'll have a volunteer shopping assistance come in and help them just kind of shop through and show them how to utilize the pantry services and what services are there. So, for example, helping them understand that we also provide, if you have a baby or an infant in diapers, we have baby formula, we have baby diapers, we have hygiene and supplies that are available also for the adults and the individuals living in the home. And so helping them access those resources, or maybe they need clothing, or maybe they need recommending a resource to another organization. Maybe somebody's having an issue with medical needs, or maybe they've lost their job and they're looking for a new job, we can actually offer resources to them to point them towards self reliance or helping them get back on their feet. So whether know, pointing them to community health, connect if they're having a health issue or to a doctor or physician that could best help them or whatever resources out there. Because we're very fortunate in Utah county, there's many organizations, whether that's a nonprofit or a government entity or a state agency that offers resources, there's a lot of great out there. And so, for example, we had a gentleman come into our food pantry, and he was a truck driver by trade, and he was involved in an accident that had a fatality, and he could no longer drive truck. And so he was getting workers compensation pay, but that was only 65% of his pay. And so you've got a shortfall if you're living paycheck to paycheck, you need those additional funds. And so he came into our food pantry because he was having trouble providing food for his family because of this particular situation. And we pointed him to another agency that works in particular in helping individuals identify new career paths. And so he went to that organization, and within three months, he was off and running with a new career and didn't need our food pantry services anymore. So similar sort of stories where maybe somebody comes in and we've had a family come in, and they were dealing with medical bills and a medical issue, an ongoing medical issue. So we're able to refer them to community health connect, and they were able to help find a resource that was actually able to provide some of the prescription medical needs that they had and then was able to help them just get out of food insecurity much faster. That's the other service that we offer besides food, is those recommendations to resources.

Melissa: That's been kind of a theme on the podcast recently with the collaboration that goes on between different nonprofits, that you each can focus on the strengths that you have and offer those services and then continue to refer and help others find the specific needs they might need that you don't fulfill.

Wendy: Absolutely.

Melissa: Great.

Wendy: Absolutely. Nonprofits love to network and love to leverage the resources. I might not specialize in healthcare or specialize in helping somebody find a new job, but there's another agency that does that. So we specialize in making sure providing the food and then pointing them to the resource that will help them best.

Melissa: And with those stories you told, I noticed as I was reading your website that it pointed out many times those experiencing food insecurities, it's temporary assistance you're giving, but there's always the need for a local food pantry because those needs know no boundaries. You might never know when someone, whatever circumstances might come that they'll find themselves in need of those services.

Wendy: Yeah. So our mission statement is helping individuals and families through tough times by providing temporary food assistance, recommending resources for self reliance, and then neighbors helping neighbors. So what is a tough time? And a tough time is back surgery. It's cancer, it's divorce. It might be your car broke down and you don't have the means to pay for the car repairs and food. So there's a lot of circumstances. And I always tell people, till there's no more tough times, until everybody drives Teslas and their cars don't break down. We're all in happy marriages, independently wealthy. We've cured cancer, all manner of illness and disease. We will need a food pantry because it's those tough times that are really the drivers behind the food insecurity. And so communities will need a persistent solution for resolving food insecurity. We very much are a revolving door. It is temporary assistance. Our average client, 75% of our clients come between three and five times, which is less than three months. So it's really just, I need a little bit of help, and I'm often on my way. I had a gentleman come in, he was a single father, and he came in, he said, wendy, I've got a new job. It's a great job. I'm actually going to be able to save money. I've been living paycheck to paycheck. However he goes, I've got a two week lag in my paycheck, and so I've got kids at home I need to feed. Can you help me out for just two weeks? And I'm like, absolutely. And so he came in once, got two weeks worth of food, and just was off and running. We see many of those situations. I was looking at our numbers the other day, and there's a large portion of the clients that we serve that just come once, and so they just need a little bit of help. Something happened. They need food for two weeks and then they're off and running. And the majority of the clients we serve are children. 50% or more are children. So these are families in our neighborhood who maybe just have a little blip on their screen of something that happened. They need a little bit of food for them and their children, and then they're good.

Melissa: And honestly, all of us will have a blip at some time. So great to know that there's friends and neighbors and resources out there to help us, whatever that need may be.

Wendy: Yes, that's exactly know. It's just those, I mean, nobody puts cancer in their budget. We don't do that. We don't put in, oh, our radiator is going to go out in our car. That's not a thing. And some of us do have rainy day funds, but most don't. It's very uncommon in us for a lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck and don't have emergency savings. And so that's really where a food pantry steps in and helps.

Melissa: Right. Have you seen with the inflation in food prices the last few years, has that affected your services and the need that you've seen?

Wendy: It has tremendously so. We've seen a lot of families coming in. I was looking at our numbers for this past year and the year prior, combined with all of our food pantry locations, we served a little over 96,000 individuals last year. We served over 150,000 individuals. Oh, wow. Inflation is playing a big role in that. However, population growth is the biggest driver. And also we're seeing a large number of refugees coming into our pantries at this time. And so those three factors, inflation is, they're saying that inflation is cooling, but I don't see prices dropping. And so I don't know, if you've gone to the grocery store recently, you spend $100 and you walk out with a bag and a half, too, if you're lucky. And you're like, where did my money go? Everybody experiencing that pinch? So that's still been a situation. We're actually seeing more low or medium. Not, sorry, not low, but medium to high income households or households that weren't struggling before, I guess not high, but medium range households that were not struggling before now coming in and saying, I need a little bit of help. And so it's just because we're not able to stretch our dollars, our buying power has diminished, and we're not able to stretch our dollars as far as we used to. That's, that's a thing. And then population know. Utah county is exploding population. One of the reasons we put a pantry or a satellite pantry in Saratoga was that area is just growing so fast that the infrastructure can't keep up with how fast that it's growing. And so population is a huge driver, and we know that's not going to stop anytime soon.

Melissa: And as a nonprofit and organization, how do you handle that extra demand and growth? What are some of your ways you go about?

Wendy: Well, first off, a lot of prayers, definitely. It's interesting to watch what our organization was ten years ago, what it was even five or six years ago. What it was two years ago is vastly different than what we are today. So we are always pivoting, we're always changing. We're always looking for new ways to increase our food donations, new ways to get more businesses and foundations, funders involved in our organization, and to help us going out and talking to our community leaders and letting them know what challenges we're facing. We're also networking with more and more nonprofit agencies and entities and finding know Utah Diaper Bank, WIC, just Utah Food bank, all of these different organizations and working with them to find ways to really leverage the resources that are available to expand capacity. But a lot of it is fundraising, too. I spend a large amount of my time when I'm not doing administrative duties. It's fundraising activities, activities driven towards raising the necessary resources financially for organization to grow. We're currently in the process of doing a capital campaign, two capital campaign projects, one for the American Fork location, which actually is a new building in Pleasant Grove, and then one in spanish fork as well. And so our buildings that we currently have no longer fit the number of clients that we're serving and the amount of food that we need to collect to fit, to serve these families. Here we are, we're needing larger buildings, but we believe that these new buildings will help meet the need for the next, we hope for the next 1020 years as our community grows. Because looking at the population growth, it's.

Melissa: Going to be stopping anytime soon.

Wendy: Yes, absolutely.

Melissa: Well, I want to go back to, you mentioned your mission statement, and I love the third one there you mentioned of helping neighbors, help neighbors as part of what you do. Can you just go into that a little more and what that means for your organization and why that's part of your mission statement?

Wendy: Absolutely. Well, about eight years ago, we rebranded Tabitha's way to Tabitha's way local food pantry. And there was a reason that we had done that. We realized that, again, tying it back to food insecurity and the drivers, the tough times that happen, because we know our communities will always have a tough time. We know that we will always need to have a food pantry. For a food pantry to thrive and to fight food insecurity, you need a robust, stable food pantry in a community. And so we recognize that we really need the help and support of the community for a food pantry to exist on a consistent and long term basis. So a persistent solution requires persistent support. And so that's where we recognize we really need the support of the community for this to be accomplished. And the truth is, communities want and can be involved, want to own this. They want to see that there's families in their community that have the resources that they need. And so we recognized that we needed to really rebrand our name and really state that in our mission statement because it does require the assistance of the community. It really does take a village. Our volunteer ratio is probably 2025 to one for every staff member. We have that many volunteers. We need organizations and neighborhoods and individuals and businesses donating food, donating supplies, donating money to our organization to make this all. So we recognize that. And that's why we put that in our mission statement, was to really make this effort, a community effort and to involve the community. Tabitha's way is that we are a community supported food pantry, and we love it. And we love how our communities have wrapped their arms around our organization and are here to help. Everything when you walk into Tabitha's way has been donated. All the people that are there, most of them are, like I said, it's a one to 25 or one to 20 person ratio depending on the day. But for every one employee, we've got 25 volunteers that are in there helping serve our clients or sorting food or serving on a committee and helping our organization do what it needs to do to scale and grow and serve the people in our community.

Melissa: I love that. And I think, as you said, most of us, that is something we care about is making sure that families and children don't go hungry. And it's great to have opportunities to know where to put those desires to help with that. For those that are local, how do you use all the volunteers and how can they sign up to help with your organization along with giving food donations as well? Obviously.

Wendy: Great question. So in both circumstances, you can go to our website. So on our website, tabithasway.org, you can click how to help. And there's information on how to sign up to volunteer depending on the pantry that's closest to you. There's also information on how you can give food and how you can schedule a food drive or what our food drive drop off hours are or what types of food we need is all listed on our website. Of course, if you're not somebody who's techie and don't want to go to our website, you're welcome to give us a call and we can direct you and send you information on what's needed. But we love it when people call and say, hey, I want to volunteer or I'm looking for a project. And I always tell people, we are a party of projects. We have volunteer opportunities for in our pantry. We have volunteers opportunities for projects outside of our pantry. We have projects for businesses and large groups and business as small groups or even individuals. We've got a rainbow variety of all kinds of things. In both circumstances, our website is probably the greatest resource to find information. But also we invite people to just call. Give us a call at 801-709-8573 and we can direct you to the pantry that's closest to you and the person that can best help you out or stop by. We love people to walk in and say, hey, what's going on here? And we say, this is what's happening. So we love people to come in and visit anytime.

Melissa: That's great. I'll use anyone that's willing. So we also have a lot of listeners that are from all over. So I would love. With your expertise and experience and the years you've spent doing this, what encouragement would you give to just anyone listening that has a desire to help with food insecurities in their community like you did, that just all started from your thoughts and desires? What advice or encouragement would you give to them or ways that they can get involved in that way?

Wendy: Well, first off, I would say that I believe personally of all of the complex issues and problems that our society is facing today. And there's a lot of complex issues, homelessness, addiction recovery, mental health, all kinds of things. Food insecurity is an issue we can resolve. It's an issue we can tackle, and we can resolve it by having persistent food pantries in our community. And so I believe it's a solvable problem. One, I want to state that, and two, I would say food insecurity exists all across America, in every neighborhood. And so I would invite people to get involved by first researching what resources are available in your community. Is there an organization that currently exists that's fighting food insecurity? Go learn about that organization. I love boots on the ground. I love it when people want to know about our organization and they come in and want to be the boots on the ground, because then they really see it doesn't take much for a convincing on my part, because they see what the need is when they come to our pantry and they see what we're doing firsthand. And all nonprofits love that. All good nonprofits love for you to come in and they want to invite you in to see what they're doing. And so go see what they're doing. If there is organizations that exist. And then secondly, look at the needs in the community. Is there areas pockets in your community that are not being served or that are underserved? And if there is not a resource that's available in your community that's addressing it, well, then maybe consider that you might be the one to help address that need. And then just, there's a lot of information that you can find online. The Urban Institute is a great research resource that you can find all about ways to tackle food insecurity, how to address food insecurity, but great resources out there. But definitely, one, see what resources you have in your community so that you're not duplicating services and help, if you can, in those areas. And then two, if there's an underserver or an area that's not being served, then help find ways to serve that particular area. If you feel compelled to do so.

Melissa: That'S great advice, and I love that you bring up that this is a solvable problem, that there are ways for us to address this issue in real time right now.

Wendy: Yes, absolutely.

Melissa: Well, Wendy, thank you so much for this conversation today. I loved learning more about Tabitha's way local food pantry and also hearing some of this good advice and perspective that you have to share. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Any final words or thoughts you'd like to share?

Wendy: Melissa, I would just like to say thank you to you. It's organizations like yours and your podcasts that help those do gooders do more good. And so nonprofits don't have marketing budgets. And as you can tell, we're very passionate about the causes that we serve. And so thank you for the blessing and honor and the opportunity to be here, and not only for myself and our organization, but for the many organizations that you're helping get the word out about the work that they're doing. So just thank you so much for that. It's wonderful.

Melissa: Well, thank you. And, yes, that is one of my missions. I recognize that nonprofits don't have those resources, and I love helping with that in any way can. So thank you so much and for all the good that you do.

Wendy: Likewise. God bless. Have a great day.

Melissa: That was my interview with Wendy Osborne, the executive director and founder of Tabitha's Way, a local food pantry. And I learned so much during that interview about so many different facets of a food pantry and what they do. Just the logistics alone is huge. I was so impressed to learn about all those different things they're coordinating and the ways that they're using the surplus from different businesses and organizations in the community, and then being able to distribute that to those who need it. And I also really appreciated what she shared about the realities that tough times are the driving force behind food insecurity, which means many people from all different walks of life might find themselves in a place where they might need these services, even if it's just for a short time. And as she said, about 75% of the people come three to five times, and then they're able to get back on their feet and get on their way. And what a great service that they're providing for those moments in people's lives when they need that extra help, that extra lift, and need to be able to feed their families while they're working out whatever that blip or tough time might be. So I loved that reminder from her and just hearing about all the good things that they're doing and that final thought that she shared that food insecurity is a solvable problem. It's something that through coordination, through the hard work of volunteers, and through just neighbors being aware of neighbors, it can be solved. And so, if you've been inspired by this interview, I will leave links to Tabitha's way food pantry. Or again, I encourage you, as she said, to go find in your local area food pantry or those organizations that are working to help with this particular need. Another final reminder. If you want to show the podcast some love, share this episode with someone who you think might like to learn more about this, learn more about Tabitha's way, or go to Apple podcasts and leave us a review. Thank you so much for being here. I'll see you next time.