Former Ohio Air National Guardsman Rich Knisley always knew he wanted to give back to his community. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit central Ohio and the call went out for additional hands at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, he got his chance.
“I always felt drawn to serve, personally. I would have sold myself short if I didn’t give back,” Rich said. “It feels better to give than to receive.”
When widespread pandemic layoffs and closures caused the demand for food assistance to spike, Mid-Ohio Food Collective and other food banks stepped up distribution efforts. Across the state, guardsmen like Rich were called on to help get food to families who needed it. He was one of more than 100 members of the Ohio National Guard who deployed to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank in 2020 and 2021. Rich said he was drawn to serve others in a time of crisis by his sense of duty and his strong Christian faith.
“I signed up [to work at the food bank] as soon as my base let me know about it. It was the right place at the right time. I loved it from the first day. I got to be part of a team who had a mission to accomplish,” Rich said. “We moved tens of thousands of pounds of food per week, hundreds of thousands per month. Here is where the rubber meets the road.”
Rich is originally from Hilliard, a Columbus suburb. He joined the Ohio Air National Guard in 2015, and he specialized in handling munitions as part of his post at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base. Before the pandemic started, he was serving one weekend a month with the guard while attending Ohio State University full time. After his deployment at the food bank started in 2021, he spent eight hours a day helping move food alongside MOFC employees and food pantry volunteers.
Mid-Ohio Food Collective’s Grove City warehouse receives, stores, stages, and ships millions of pounds of food every year. The size of roughly three football fields, it’s staffed by about 25 full-time employees who stock and move truckloads of frozen, refrigerated, and dry products every day. That food is then distributed to more than 600 local food pantries, soup kitchens, and feeding sites across 20 Ohio counties. MOFC distributed more than 84 million pounds of food in 2023.
During his deployment at MOFC, Rich served in a key position on the warehouse’s out-bound dock. Many local food pantries pick up inventory directly from the food bank and use the out-bound truck dock to load their vehicles with produce, meat, and other items.
As a sergeant with his first official command, Rich led six other guardsmen on the dock every day—even serving as acting chaplain at one point during a special visit from National Guard leadership. Working alongside MOFC warehouse staff, Rich and his team stacked pallets and loaded dozens of cars per shift.
The work was constant, and he remembers MOFC Distributions Specialist Angie Hafner (pictured below, right), who worked the dock with him throughout the early pandemic, as being “the calm in the storm.” Between the scale of the work, Angie’s helpfulness, and the bravery of the volunteers who came to pick up food for Ohioans in need, Rich said he could feel the importance of what his unit was sent to do.
“This place was a lot bigger than what I expected, and the overwhelming feeling here is one of selflessness,” Rich said. “When I hopped in, all four of those dock doors were just open constantly. It was non-stop … That was one of the first times in my life where I was having a measurable impact on my community.”
Rich’s time with the National Guard ended in September 2022, but he fondly remembers his time feeding his hungry neighbors. He said the chance to work for his community and put his “God-given selflessness” into action is one he’ll never forget, and now—with his master’s in business administration in hand—he’s hoping to work for or found a non-profit that helps address food insecurity.
“If I’m ever successful in life, I’m partnering with this place,” Rich said on a recent trip back to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. “Ohio’s population is about 12 million people, and you get caught up in thinking, ‘well, what can I do?’ But the world starts to feel a lot smaller when you get out there and try.”
