Fish Choice Pantry has been the recipient of, not one, but two Eagle Scout projects over the 2021 summer! We would like to publicly express our gratitude to these two young men for their help and support of our mission to provide emergency food to the residents of Darke County in times of need.
Kristy Cutarelli, the director of the Darke County Fish Choice Pantry, was approached by two Darke County Scouts, Jack Marshall and Graham Mulligan, requesting if the pantry needed any type of service or project they might be able to complete for the good of the community. They came up with two very different projects.
Jack Marshall decided to build a “cool room” inside the pantry. This is a very well insulated room complete with a large AC unit to keep the room at a cool temperature enabling the pantry to keep fresh fruits and vegetables for an extended period of time. It also frees up other refrigeration units allowing the pantry to store foods needing refrigeration at a lower temperature. This project was very involved. It included the help of an engineer and many hours of information gathering and manual labor. He also provided wire shelving inside the room, an upright freezer and a refrigerator/freezer. Jack completed this project in September after many months of work.
Graham Mulligan organized a free lunch program for the community. Each Wednesday from June 16 through August 18 lunch was provided at the Fish Pantry. He also provided free carnival games, snow cones and cotton candy for the children who participated. On June 16th, the first day, and August 18th, the last day, a bounce house was set up in celebration. This lunch was served outside the building no matter the weather and could be eaten on the property or taken out. Graham and his crew were diligent in providing this fun and enriching service to the community all summer long.
Fish Choice Pantry is excited and honored to have been the recipient of the hard work and dedication of these two young men.
Fish is an ecumenical volunteer organization which responds to emergency food needs. The Fish Choice Food Pantry, located at 400 Markwith Avenue, is open on Mondays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesdays from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m., and on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. No appointment is necessary to visit the Food Pantry; clients are eligible for help once every four weeks. To learn more, call Fish at 548-2000; a Fish volunteer will return your call.