Team Food Pantry Growing New Leadership

Team Food Pantry, a leading Dunwoody volunteer organization that donates fresh produce to families in need, is undergoing a change in leadership effective today.

Pattie Baker, who has been a co-chair of Team Food Pantry and the inspirational driving force behind the Community Garden, of which Team Food Pantry is a part, is stepping down from the leadership position she has shared with fellow co-chair Sally Malone.

While it’s hard to imagine Pattie straying too far from the action, she is leaving the day-to-day operations of Team Food Pantry to finish a book, Food For My Daughters, in which she shares touching stories about sustainability, resiliency and life. These stories are about Pattie’s response to the 9/11 attacks on the United States, which prompted her to become active in community gardening and urban agriculture as a way to feed her family and others in case terrorists ever attacked the U.S. food supply.

Shawn Bard will take Pattie’s place as co-chair of Team Food Pantry and join Sally in the continuing effort to supply fresh produce to needy families in Dunwoody.

Shawn, a Master Gardener and bee keeper, is the volunteer leader of the newly re-established vegetable garden at the Spruill Art Gallery at the corner of Meadow Lane and Ashford Dunwoody Road. All of the produce collected from the garden is added to the Team Food Pantry harvests.

Team Food Pantry currently cultivates about 15 spaces at the Community Garden in Brook Run Park, eight beds at the Brook Run greenhouse and five beds at the garden at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church on North Peachtree Road. Home gardeners and individual members of the Community Garden also contribute to the weekly donations, which go to Malachi’s Storehouse at St. Patrick’s.

Volunteers plant and tend the gardens, wash, weigh, package and deliver the produce, all of it grown year-round and organically.

So far this year, 1,606 pounds of fresh produce with a value of $8,030 has been donated to charity. (Volunteers also made a recent donation of 20 pounds of tomatoes to the Dunwoody police and fire departments!) That puts Team Food Pantry just 394 pounds away from their Ton for Hunger goal – 2,000 pounds of fresh produce donations in one year.

The group harvests every Tuesday morning (rain, shine … or snow!) at 8:30 at the main garden in Brook Run and Wednesday afternoons at 2 p.m. with the food pantry clients at St. Pat’s. The food pantry serves 70-140 families a week, double that during the holidays. The goal is that everyone who comes to a local food pantry will receive something fresh, organic and healthy.  

“Working with Pattie Baker has been nothing short of transformative for Malachi's Storehouse families,” said Kathy Malcolm Hall, co-director of Malachi's, in praising Pattie’s passion for service and for building a strong volunteer team. “Her willingness to envision a Malachi's that has the ability to serve its families fresh produce each week AND to bring that vision into fruition has been miraculous and inspirational.

“Team Food Pantry has been collaborative, instructional and patient as we at Malachi's learn the ins and outs of tending an organic garden. We are so very grateful to Pattie's vision and her partnership,” Kathy continued.   

“We look forward to having Sally and Shawn at the helm of Team Food Pantry as we all continue to envision a community that works alongside one another for the nourishment of us all.”

The pantry team is one of many Community Garden teams that perform a variety of volunteer service activities. Non-garden members who don't want to commit to the stewardship of a plot or weekly harvests are more than welcome to simply help the pantry team harvest as their schedule permits.

If you would like to help the pantry team, please contact Sally or Shawn. You can email them at membership@dunwoodygarden.org. No doubt, they would welcome you with open arms.