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HomePantry Project

Pantry Project


How to get involved

  • Donate food and/or goods for the pantry. This article lists the items most needed and how to donate.
  • Make a monetary donation.
  • Volunteer your time. Contact Anne Marie to find out how.

Make a Donation

 

Make a One-Time Donation

Make a Recurring Donation

Sangha Members may make a recurring donation if logged in.

Make a Recurring Donation


WHS Engaged Buddhism Pantry Project is fundraising with Tru Earth!

Support our fundraising efforts by shopping through our fundraising store. Our community will receive 20% of all proceeds on each purchase made! Simply click the link below.

Tru Earth WHS Fundraiser

🙏 Ways to Help 🙏


You can find ways to donate monetarily on this webpage.

You can sign up to 'shop and stock' the SLO pantries.

You can sign up to shop for the Rice School pantry.

You can glean fruits and vegies from gardens.


Please contact Anne Marie Bergen to volunteer
annemariebergen@gmail.com 

 



Starbucks Display~~ UPCOMING EVENTS ~~

THE UU Pantry gets much need maintance and new paint.  The painting party is December 4th.

STARBUCKS - During the month of November, the Starbucks on North Broadway in Santa Maria will have a care box in their store for us.  We are asking for hygiene products like shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap and the like. 

HARVEST EVENT DECEMBER 12th - We will be having our next event on December 12 from noon to 4:00 at the Rice School Pantry.  Please contact Anne Marie Bergen if you would like to participate in the joyous event.


Slideshow
Bed Delivery April 29, 2023

THE BED PROJECT DELIVERS!


At our December 2022 food event, we surveyed families to see if they had beds for their children. We found about 1 out 3 families did not. We then partnered with Sleep in Heavenly Peace to get these children beds. Thanks to the awesome generosity of the White Heron Sangha, we provided all of the bedding needed for those beds.

On April 29, 2023 we participated in delivering 65 beds to these children!  65 kids got beds! Many have not had a bed of their own before.  It was very heart warming and we were met with so much gratitude.

If you would like more information about Sleep In Heavenly Peace please contact Kristy Mooney at i5klm503@gmail.com or visit their website at shpbeds.org and maneuver to the Santa Barbara North chapter.

About the Pantry Project


In the Summer of 2021, the Engaged Buddhism Planning Committee decided to sponsor free food pantries in our community.   After project research, two locations were identified, pantry building plans were drawn up, construction money was raised with a funding appeal to the Sangha, and construction began with all work done by WHS volunteers. 

 

The first pantry was built for and assembled in front of Kristy Mooney’s house.  Her house is between low income housing and Rice Elementary School in Santa Maria.  The young children and their families walk past the pantry on their way to school and home again.  The pantry opened for business on the first day of school, August 12, 2021.  We quickly found that many of these families suffer from food insecurity.  Thanks to the generosity of the sangha, the UUF, and various produce companies, it has been stocked (and emptied) at least twice each day that school has been in session.

 

By September 2021, the second pantry opened.  It is a shared project with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (UUF) across from Meadow Park.  The UUF purchased the materials but our volunteers built it and it was assembled onsite with the assistance of a UUF volunteer. This pantry serves a more transient population, many of whom are unhoused.  The UUF is a distribution site for the SLO Food Bank and will stock the pantry from their storehouse.  In addition, we shop for and stock this pantry four times a week with much needed items that the SLO Food Bank does not offer.

Since, we have adopted several other pantries that we help stock during the week.  See them below.  A huge thank you to Gail Cheda for all she does for these pantries!

 

Dana to support this project is provided primarily by WHS members.  However, we are also forming partnerships with generous growers* and retailers in the area who will provide fresh fruit and vegetables for these pantries on a regular basis.  This greatly enhances our ability to provide nutritional support through our pantries. 

 

For more information about the Pantry Project please contact Anne Marie Bergen, Pantry Project Coordinator, at annemariebergen@gmail.com

 

Special thanks to these WHS Sangha members for their work on establishing the Pantry  Project:  Kat Tuculet, for bringing the idea and carrying it forth, pantry painter, food gatherer and deliverer, consultant with UU, and anything else the project needs.  And to her husband the architect of the pantries.  Sharon Rippner, our EB leader, fundraiser, painter, and fresh fruit picker.  Kate Christensen, our researcher and consultant with UU, painter, and generous food collector and deliverer. Rob Robinson, the builder of the two pantries.  Kristy Mooney who hosts one of the pantries—a daily job of organizing, stocking and managing this pantry.  Anne Marie Bergen who is volunteer coordinator for the Pantry Project and also gleans food for the pantry from backyard orchards and farms.  Last, but certainly not least, thank you to all of the WHS Sangha members, friends and family members who donate money, time, and energy to sustain this Pantry Project.

Slideshow
EOSY Event May 2023
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Bullock Pantry

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Hope Pacific Pantry

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Rice School Pantry

Sinsheimer Pantry

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UU Pantry