Food pantry a labor of love for Ezelle

WASILLA - It was the beginning of a new chapter in his life 2.5 years ago when Eddie Ezelle answered an ad looking for an executive director for the Food Pantry of Wasilla.

Back then he said he was commuting to work 12-hour shifts at the Anchorage airport.

“I took a 50 percent pay cut, but here I am,” he said.

For the first 30 years of its life, the nonprofit had no paid staff, Ezelle said. But a grant from the Mat-Su Health Foundation three years ago funded the addition of a full-time staff position for the organization, he said. But those grant funds ran out in September and now the food pantry pays his wage.

“I think I’ve accomplished a lot for them in the last two years,” Ezelle said.

Volunteers started the nonprofit in 1984 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, which still donates space on its lot to house the food panty building.

But with no full-time staff to seek grants and donations of food and cash, there were often months in the winter when the cupboards were bare.

Ezelle said part of his mission has been to set up a year-round flow of food — and cash — into the pantry.

“This is all done through donations,” he said.

Like the Boy Scout food drive that collected more than 6,400 pounds of food and donated it to the pantry, he said, or the local woman who donates $25 each month.

Or other local nonprofits like Turn A Leaf, which partners year-round with the food pantry to collect food and cash donations, said John Rozzi, CEO for Turn A Leaf. He said the nonprofit also is working to establish an endowment that can be used to help people with one-time costs such as medical premiums.

Ezelle held up a small bag filled with change that shoppers had dropped into a donation jar at the Turn A Leaf thrift store. He said Rozzi brings over about $65 a month in change from the jar.

A child of humble beginnings, Ezelle said he’s been on the other side of the table without enough to eat.

Whether it’s two thin dimes, a collection of partially used toilet paper rolls saved and donated by a local janitorial service, or just a can of peas, Ezelle said no donation is too small.

“I tell people, ‘if you only have a can of peas, someone out there needs a can of peas,’” he said.

Anchorage has Bean’s Café and the Downtown Soup Kitchen where hungry people are served hot meals. But in the Valley, Ezelle said the hungry and homeless are less visible.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “Out here in the Valley, it’s kind of hidden.”

If your face becomes familiar, expect Ezelle to strike up a conversation about what sort of needs your family has to get back on its feet.

Sometimes he offers helpful suggestions, like selling the late model, gas-guzzler and buying a beater that’s harder on the ego, but cheaper to drive.

“But sometimes there really is nothing you can do,” he said of the circumstances that bring people to his door.

Beyond food of all kinds, also needed are common household items such as dish soap, bath soap, laundry soap and toilet paper.

“If you aren’t clean, it has other implications,” Ezelle said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.