KAREN LAGRANGE COX
The Youngsville Pantry (TYP) helps to provide food to people and families in need. TYP is a mission based non-profit which also works to help meet the basic needs of the community with providing spiritual guidance and support. While TYP provides food for the body, they also help to provide food for the soul through their spiritual ministry.
The pantry was started eleven years ago by First Assembly of God in Youngsville. According to Stephany Jaschke with TYP, last year a 501c3 was filed to set TYP as its own entity.
From their website, “We are bridging the hunger gap, serving meals at no cost to residents in the Youngsville Community.”
Jaschke, who came on board at TYP in May 2021, said they serve residents of Broussard, Youngsville, Milton and parts of South Lafayette, which are broken out into the zip codes of 70518, 70592, 70558 and 70508. The purpose of the service areas established by zip codes is for donations to be evenly allocated.
The need for food may arise for someone who experienced a job loss to a senior citizen that need help making ends meet while living on social security.
TYP receives food donations through various sources such as food drives and partnerships. Second Harvest acts as a broker for the partnerships. Amongst those they partner with are Whole Foods and Walmart. Just this morning they picked up twelve hundred pounds of food from Whole Foods.
A box truck was donated to TYP which they use to pickup food from various places. When Southside High School held a food drive, Jaschke used the truck to pickup the food at Southside to take to the pantry.
TYP will soon have a dietician working with them. A community garden will be made for the growth of food, which is a benefit for the community. In time, it can provide an educational aspect, for example through field trips, for people to learn how to grow a garden.
TYP currently serves approximately 300 families in the Youngsville-Broussard area.
Call (337) 277-5172 for more information or visit www.youngsvillepantry.org.
