When former schoolteachers Ellen and Bruce Crouthamel retired after 36 years on the job, they wanted to stay active and keep giving back to the community. To them, the best way to do that was with food.
The couple first volunteered with Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC) in 2011. Since then, they’ve sorted thousands of cans, packed hundreds of senior meal boxes, and donated a combined 2,800 volunteer hours at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.
“People were good, kind, and wonderful to me, and I wanted to give back to the next generation,” Ellen said. “We were always taught to provide for and help other people.”
The Crouthamels taught for South-Western City Schools in Grove City for the bulk of their careers. Ellen taught social studies and language arts. Bruce taught math. Both saw the effects of poverty in the community and of hunger in the classroom.
“At school, you see where kids have a need physically, mentally, and emotionally and direct them to resources,” Ellen said. “We saw food shortages at school—kids who didn’t come to school fed. And if our school has hunger, what other schools do, too? When kids aren’t fed or don’t know where that next meal is coming from, they don’t do well.”
One of MOFC’s five core assets, the Mid-Ohio Foodbank is located in Grove City just south of Columbus. Consisting of three football fields’ worth of warehouse space and industrial-sized sorting and packing facilities, the Foodbank is the heart of MOFC’s logistics operation. With volunteers’ help, it distributes enough food to supply more than 170,000 meals every day to pantries and feeding sites in 20 Ohio counties.
Volunteers play several vital roles at the Foodbank, including inspecting donated products, packing boxes, and helping pantry customers. MOFC needs roughly 1,000 volunteers a week to operate, and the Collective welcomed more than 14,000 unique volunteers in 2022 who gave a combined 89,735 hours that year. Volunteers donating time saved MOFC more than $3 million in FY2023, allowing the organization to put more of those funds toward food distribution to hungry Ohioans.
The Crouthamels have contributed to that effort on an almost weekly basis. On Wednesdays, the couple comes in and sorts donated food alongside other volunteers they’ve known and worked with for over a decade. Together, the crew has sorted and boxed bread, shucked corn, sorted good produce from bad, bagged hundreds of bulk-donated frozen chicken patties, and much more. They worked alongside the Ohio National Guard in the early pandemic to keep Ohioans fed. Ellen and Bruce each donated 120 hours of time in 2022.
In addition to their time at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Ellen and Bruce also volunteer to drive donated produce from MOFC’s warehouse to the Heart to Heart Food Pantry in Marble Cliff (near Columbus) and to the Riverview International Center, a nonprofit that helps New American families. While it can be a challenge to fit enough food to feed 30 families into a passenger vehicle, Bruce said, it’s nothing a little creativity can’t solve.
“You’d be surprised what we can fit into one car,” said Bruce, laughing. “It’d be packed front to back, bottom to top. It’s like a puzzle!”
In the early days of their volunteer deliveries, Bruce remembers filling the footwells of their small SUV with sacks of potatoes. On one trip, Ellen and Bruce somehow fit 800 pounds of food into their car. Laughing at the memory, they described a very slow, cramped, and careful trip from the MOFC warehouse to their church.
For the Crouthamels, volunteering is also a way to live their spiritual values. They have been members of First Community Church in Marble Cliff for 30 years. Feeding the hungry is part of what their faith calls them to do, Bruce said.
“It’s more than just going to a Sunday worship service,” Bruce said. “It’s about helping others throughout the week.”
Ellen and Bruce strongly recommend volunteering to other retirees and community members. For them, it has meant creating strong community bonds. Bruce said newcomers who volunteer alongside his group often ask if they’ve been lifelong friends.
“We’ve had people ask, ‘did you know each other before you started?’” Bruce said. “That’s what you keep coming back for—the camaraderie. We’re in this together.”
Looking for a community volunteer opportunity? MOFC would love to have you! Visit MOFC.org/volunteer to see volunteer opportunities at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Mid-Ohio Markets, and Mid-Ohio Kitchen, and Mid-Ohio Farm or book a time to speak with our Volunteer Services Team.
