Community Food Pantry feeds the hungry living on Cedar Creek Lake; donations fund organization

by David Webb

David Webb is a veteran journalist who has written for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. He is now a freelancer who lives in the Cedar Creek Lake area. He is a regular contributor to cedarcreeklake.com. E-mail story ideas to davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.

Sue Ann Kosydar is president of Community Food Pantry in Tool, which has served Cedar Creek Lake residents for 28 years. It is located at Cedar Creek Lake United Methodist Church. The Methodist church operates the food pantry in cooperation with Aley United Methodist Church, St. Jude Catholic Church, Providence Baptist Church and First Baptist Church Tool. It also receives donations from other churches, businesses and individuals. It currently is serving 307 people, which represents 97 families.

CedarCreekLake.com: How do you coordinate the management of the food pantry among five churches of mostly different denominations?

Kosydar: We all get along. We each take a month and run the pantry. We switch out on the first Wednesday of every month. We have a meeting every month to report how many people we fed. If we have any problems we address them. We meet at the church that is going to serve that month.

CCL.com: How do Cedar Creek Lake residents who are in need come into contact with the food pantry?

Kosydar: By word of mouth actually. The people who belong to the different churches let people who need help know about the pantry. Sometimes the Family Resource Center will send people in this direction.

CCL.com: How do people qualify for help?

Kosydar: We belong to the East Texas Food Bank, and they have a form that they want us to get filled out. There is a question about income but if someone comes in and says they are hungry we will serve them. Things happen. We're not going to judge. I don't care who you are. We're all God's children. We try to treat everybody with the utmost respect. If you're hungry, you're hungry.

CCL.com: How great is the need?

Kosydar: It's bad because so many places are letting people go. A lot of people work in other cities, but they live around the lake. We're seeing an influx of more clients.

CCL.com: How is the food pantry funded?

Kosydar: Each church puts in a donation, and we take donations from individuals, businesses and other churches. Celebration on the Lake Church over in Payne Springs recently gave us a large donation of sweet potatoes and dressing mixes. From the donations of cash we buy food from the East Texas Food Bank at 19 cents per pound. We are able to buy it at a much lower cost. We spend about $2,000 each month, and that buys a lot of food.

CCL.com: What sort of plans do you have for the future of the food pantry?

Kosydar: We're fixing to get a new building built. It will be about 900-square-foot. We started off in a closet, then we we moved to this room which is about 400-square-foot. Most of the food is nonperishable items, but when we move into the new building within the year we will have refrigerators and freezers. We will be distributing a lot of fresh meat and vegetables then.

CCL.com: What inspires you to be so involved in this work?

Kosydar: I needed help myself once. This is my way of giving back.

Anyone wanting to donate to the food pantry or to volunteer for the organization can call Kosydar at 903-498-3402. Donations of nonperishable food and cash are accepted.

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