AKRON, Ohio — For Michelle Smith, working as the executive director of the Good Samaritan Hunger Center isn’t only a career — she considers it her calling.
“I love this job, and I love what we do for the community. I love our customers,” said Smith
As she greets those in their cars lined up for this food distribution, many of the faces are familiar, which is a reminder of the consistent need for food made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We used to get maybe 75 to 100. Now we usually I plan for at least 130 here and we’ve seen as many as 140 cars come through,” Smith said.
This is one of the four pop-up pantries the Good Samaritan Hunger Center holds every week. It’s a model that Smith said allows the team full of volunteers to meet the need where it’s at.
“The community has come to rely on us. We’re right across the street from one of the housing developments. Lots of people in this community walk here,” Smith said.
The Good Samaritan Hunger Center is a partner pantry of the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank, both founded in 1982 with the help of Smith’s cousin Jordan Haddad. She said last year the Good Samaritan Hunger Center gave away almost half a million pounds of food, something her cousin would be very proud of.
“This year, I’m aiming for three quarters of a million,” Smith said.
Smith said responding to the increased amount of food insecurity in Summit and Lake counties has been a challenge, but she’s glad to have the support of Akron Canton Regional Foodbank, especially since they recently launched their 30th Harvest for Hunger campaign, an initiative that bolsters donations and directly impacts their partner pantries and soup kitchens.
“The Harvest For Hunger raises a lot of money. So the food bank can buy food but the fact that this year there’s no shared maintenance fees is just absolutely amazing so that’s going to be able enable us to stretch our dollar even further. They help us give away more food to the needy.”
