EAST CARBON, Utah – Jennifer Carter was still homeschooling the three youngest of her five children when in 2020 COVID swarmed through her community of about 1,500 people.
With the help of friend Jay Daugherty, she and her family decided to partner with Trinity Food Pantry in nearby Price to help those with food insecurities. Some didn’t drive and others were scared to leave their homes because of the pandemic.
“It started because some people we knew didn’t have a way to get to Price – it’s 25 miles west – so we packed up 10 boxes of food in my living room and dropped it off at their front porch,” Carter told Baptist Press. “We’d knock and run.”
Today Open Door Food Pantry is in a stable location provided by the city, and about 260 families a month are receiving food. During last November’s government shutdown, the number of people served rose to more than 300 families. Two trucks from the Food Bank of Utah serve the food pantry. One is dry goods; the other is fresh food and frozen items.
What started as assistance to the elderly and car-less has grown into a community-wide, twice-monthly ministry called Open Door Food Pantry of East Carbon, which draws the elderly, single-parent families, the homeless, unemployed, under-employed and people who just run out of groceries before the end of the month. Everyone is welcome; no demand for income verification or identification. The only requirement is that people who come give the number of people in their family to justify the amount of food the ministry receives at no cost from the Food Bank of Utah.
“Word spread quickly about what we were doing, and within a month we were putting boxes of food we had packed out onto the sidewalk in front of our house for people to stop and pick up,” Carter said. “That worked for about 35 families. In the summer we moved to the park. About 50 families were coming then. We had to pass all the food out each time because we didn’t have a place to store it. Then it got really cold and City Hall let us use a room that we had to set up, clean up, and be in and out the same day.”
Some people have jobs; others live in their car, Carter said. One man comes with a wheelbarrow.
“We don’t ask anybody for anything,” Carter said. “We don’t know their circumstances.
“We have to get creative sometimes,” Carter continued. “Sometimes we have to juggle how we pass out our food. We make sure everyone leaves with something. In November, when the food went away because of the government shut-down, we knew we were going to get a lot of people. We prayed a lot, asking Jesus to multiply the loaves and fishes, and He did! We pre-packed all the boxes, rather than letting people come into the pantry, guessing we were going to serve 200 families. That month we had over 300 families. But everybody got something.”
The ministry wouldn’t be possible without its faithful volunteers, Carter said.
“The pantry has an amazing group of volunteers ranging in many ages,” Carter said. “One gentleman is 90 and comes to help. The volunteers are the backbone of our pantry.”
In addition to a wide variety of dry goods and sometimes fresh produce and baked goods, evangelistic tracts are always available, one of which looks like a million-dollar bill; another, a graphic novel.
“This has been a great way to reach people for Christ,” Carter said. “We’ve been able to pray with people and for people. I know that some have started attending church but whether they’ve given their lives over to Christ I don’t know.”
Gospel Community Church of Price, a Southern Baptist congregation where Carter and her family are members, got involved in August 2021.
“Gospel Community stepped in and we were able to use their non-profit status to become a host site for the Food Bank of Utah,” Carter said. “Now we have a truck coming twice a month and we have a place to store what’s not given out.”
The church also gathers hygiene and other items from time to time. Gospel Community also helped raise money for 60 traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners this year, in addition to what people received those early winter months at Open Door Food Pantry.
One recent Saturday – the first of the month– boxed cereal, various kinds of chips and snacks, dried pasta, rice, peanut butter and more vied for space with cans and cans of corn, green beans, pears, soups, and more. Along one wall were the donations given by individuals: a couple jars of jam – quickly swept up by early shoppers – a few cans of barbecue sauce, tuna fish, even energy drinks.
Five volunteers are on hand almost every time the food pantry is open, plus Carter and her husband. Church members regularly stop by to help keep shelves stocked or to help carry patrons’ selections to their vehicles.
“Sometimes it’s a little tight,” Carter said. “The last truck, we had four volunteers and 10 pallets of food. When the weather is bad, the truck can’t get up the hill to the pantry so he leaves it at the local clinic and we have to go after the food and truck it ourselves to the pantry. My volunteers are amazing!”
The Open Door Food Pantry is a valued extension of East Carbon, City Council Member Grant Neath told Baptist Press.
“The City of East Carbon is lucky to have Jennifer Carter and her family for all they do for East Carbon citizens and those in need,” Neath said. “She’s got great volunteers working with her. Because of all their help, citizens in need in East Carbon get to eat.”
In addition to coordinating Open Door Food Pantry, Carter for the last four years has been the lead preschool teacher 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays at Bruin Point Elementary, the only school remaining in the area. Middle- and high-school students are bused to Price. At Gospel Community Church in Price, Carter teaches apologetics and evangelism to a small group before Sunday morning worship.
“I love my community and I love sharing Christ, so anything I can do, that’s what I do,” Carter said. “I do stay busy. It’s for God’s glory!”
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