Fairlawn Baptist Church

The mission of Fairlawn Food Pantry is to provide supplementary food to last for 3-5 days for those households requesting support, some of whom are our church families but the overwhelming majority are from outside the church and are referred by Community Resources, Inc. (CRI). We strive to treat recipients with respect and understanding, provide resource information for any additional assistance they might need, give them literature from the church that includes the Plan of Salvation, invite them to church services in a non-threatening manner and offer a Bible for their home (courtesy of the Gideons organization). Working through referrals from CRI, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and our congregation the food pantry team, with help from Fairlawn individuals and families, provides and delivers 50 Christmas Baskets. Each basket contains food items for families to prepare a traditional Christmas dinner. 

Updates are given to the church through our church newsletter, our Harvest Day Promotion when people of our congregation fill brown bags for the Christmas baskets, or on Team Sharing Sunday. New members are encouraged to join the team and both men and women are welcome. The congregation is asked to refer names of people whom they know are in need and do not apply for help for various reasons.  

The Fairlawn Food Pantry is a member of the Wood County Emergency Food Co-op (WCEFC), which is made up of many Food Pantries in Wood county. Each pantry is assigned a mapped area close to their location. When a family is served CRI is notified enabling all pantries to be kept up to date by computer. 

These food pantries of the WCEFC are stocked thru their church congregations, Mountaineer Food Bank, Emergency Food & Shelter Program (FEMA), Boy Scout and Girl Scout Collections, National Association of Letter Carriers’ Food Drive, schools collecting food to share for those in need, Curves for Women Food Drives, and other businesses and agencies’ collection projects.  Members of the WCEFC thank those who support our pantries by helping to keep them stocked and eliminating the need to solicit door-to-door for food contributions.