Baby Pantry Anniversary
This summer marks the 5th anniversary of Child Advocacy having the Baby Pantry! The Baby Pantry is open to all families in Gratiot County with children ages 0-5. The Baby Pantry helps to promote the education of safe parenting practices. We offer infant safe sleep, car seat safety, prevention of shaken babies, and other positive parenting strategies. Through the help of our community with donations and volunteers, we provide diapers, wipes, baby food, toddler snacks, clothes, and formula.
The Baby Pantry became part of Child Advocacy in 2017. Since the day that we have taken over, we have had 4,800 family visits. With the help of the community due to donations, we have been able to give out around 1,500 cans of formula, 4,400 jars of baby food, 8,400 toddler snacks, and 95,000 diapers. Community donations and volunteers are essential to our baby pantry, and keep the Baby Pantry running each week.
The Baby Pantry has very dedicated volunteers that work each week stocking and packaging item, filling orders, and giving them out during drive thru pick up that is held each Wednesday. Some of our volunteers have been with us for the entire 5 years and some even more before it was taken over by Child Advocacy. I am here with Child Advocacy as a BSW Intern from Central Michigan University and as part of my education I am working in the Baby Pantry for the summer taking on new roles and working with the volunteers. In preparation for this article I talked with some of our volunteers to see how being a volunteer had impacted their life.
I first talked with Barb C. and asked about what she has gained within the Baby Pantry. After a discussion with Barb, she said “I have developed more compassion for the unfortunate that have children. I am grateful that I can help these people in some way and bring benefits to these families.”
Next, I talked with Sue L. I asked Sue about her overall experience with the baby pantry. She stated “When I started volunteering there was more interaction but because of Covid-19 that has changed. I still have a lot of gratitude for knowing how much I was still able to help these families. Through the changes to the baby pantry, I have watched it grow and have more space to accept more and more donations. We have a huge impact on the community and want to volunteer with the Baby Pantry for as long as I can.”
The last volunteer I talked with was Kim W. I asked Kim how the people she has met impacted her life. She stated “I have built relationships with other volunteers through the Baby Pantry and others with the Alma community art center because they overlap at times. She sees other volunteers in the community and is always happy to build a new relationship in the community.”
At the Baby Pantry, we love to connect with our community. We love to build our relationships with our volunteers as well. As the Baby Pantry continues to grow, we are looking for more volunteers to join our team. For more information on how to volunteer go to https://childadvocacy.net/ click on ways to give and hit volunteer.
Kerissa Zbytowski
CAC BSW Intern
