Our Daily Bread invites clients back inside pantry

After operating for more than a year as a drive thru, volunteers at Our Daily Bread Food Pantry (ODB) have excitedly welcomed clients into the pantry building since June 1.

With a lower infection rate in Sedgwick County, combined with rising vaccination levels and the relaxing of COVID precautions, program director Joe Seitz says ODB was ready to safely reopen its doors to clients.

Coming into the building allows clients to choose the food items that they want for their family, rather than receiving a pre-packaged box of items that were distributed through the drive thru.

“We are still taking precautions, such as a one-way route through the pantry, and taking appointments to manage the flow of people,” Joe says. “While the drive thru certainly served its purpose and was necessary, the volunteers and I agree that we can better serve our clients with dignity and respect when they are able to choose the food items they want.”

Joe says the early response from clients has been favorable. “One client recently shared with a volunteer that they prefer Our Daily Bread to other pantries in Wichita because ‘you guys treat us like human beings,’” he says.

While appointments are not required, they are encouraged; people who make appointments will have priority over those who walk in during normal operating hours. The pantry is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon, and on the fourth Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to noon. To make an appointment at Our Daily Bread Food Pantry, call (316) 262-8898.

Joe says the pantry is still busier than it was prior to the March 2020 shutdowns, but the numbers have slowed since the height of the pandemic when 2,000 families would come each month. 

“We are serving about 1,500 families a month now, or about twice what we were doing before the pandemic,” he says.