Community steps in to fill the Cupboard’s shelves
In the first several months of 2025, Interim Community Cupboard Manager Lily Roberts was driving to Wenatchee four times a week to buy enough food to keep the food pantry’s shelves stocked. That’s twice as often as in 2024, reflecting the increase in shoppers in the beginning of this year.
Maintaining full pantry shelves despite the increased demand stretched the Cupboard far beyond its capacity. In March 2025, the costs for running the Cupboard were more than double the allocated budget.
“$12,000, while over budget, was what we needed to spend in the month of March to meet the demands of the people coming to shop,” says Lily. “We realized that was not sustainable, although we would love to spend that amount every month.”
Finding creative solutions to meet shoppers’ needs
It became clear that something had to change, including how much the Cupboard was spending on items it usually bought. When egg prices rose as a result of the shortages related to bird flu, the team decided to limit the amount of eggs to one dozen per household per month. They also decided to stop buying milk, which costs $1000 to $1200 a month, and stopped stocking butter and toilet paper.
The changes made a difference—for the first time in a long time, the Cupboard’s costs came in under budget, although only by a couple hundred dollars.
However, the change in the Cupboard was noticeable. Shoppers saw that many items they could usually expect weren’t there anymore. They would comment on the emptier shelves, which was disheartening to the staff and volunteers.
“There were a few weeks when we were trying to stick to our budget when shoppers were saying things like, ‘Wow, you don’t have much in here,’” said Lily.
“I showed up and the shelves were empty,” said Michelle Tiegel, who volunteers at the Cupboard on Fridays.
She went into the back room, where extra food is stored. It wasn’t very full, and many items were labeled with dates in the future to help ration how quickly they’d be used.
“It was a little heart crushing,” said Michelle. “I went home to my husband and said, ‘Can we just go buy some food and put it on the shelves?’”
Then things started to change.
A MEND-run food drive on Easter weekend at Safeway brought in 1142 pounds of food. Not long after, several community organizations stepped in to host their own food drives on MEND’s behalf. In just over a month, the Nazarene Church of Leavenworth, the Leavenworth Lions Club, and the Alpine Lakes Girls on the Run Club for 3rd-5th graders all did food drives at Safeway and Dan’s Food Market, bringing in a total of 2500 pounds of additional food to fill the shelves.
“When canned food comes in {through the food drives}, that leaves us with a room in our budget to buy other items that we’ve been told really help people,” says Lily.
In April, one of the Cupboard volunteers saw the empty space where the milk had been and heard people asking about it. The volunteer asked Lily why they weren’t buying milk anymore.
“We had to decide what was sustainable for us to provide,” Lily explained.
The volunteer decided to help, donating enough money to cover half the cost of buying milk for a year. She asked that it be used as a match, to inspire others to give as well.
In June, the community answered the call for help, donating $52,000, meeting the match. Those funds mean the Cupboard started buying milk again, and will not have to further limit the food it buys. It also means the Cupboard will not have to consider limiting the food it buys to shoppers who live in the Upper Valley.
Thanks to all the community support, the Cupboard feels full again.
“Now it’s all-hands-on-deck because there’s so much food to unload,” says Michelle. “The back room is brimming with food.”
“To me, seeing the food drives happen—and not having to organize them ourselves, since they take a lot of work—gives me a lot of faith in this community,” says Lily. “We just feel really seen.”
Thank you to everyone in the community who has donated to make sure the Cupboard has the food it needs!