Columbus, Ohio USA
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NNEMAP Food Pantry
Leaves Neighborhood After 46 Years
May/June 2015 Issue

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NNEMAP, the Near Northside Emergency Materials Assistance Program, a food pantry founded in 1969 to provide needy Columbus residents with food and other necessities recently moved out of the Short North neighborhood where they were based for 46 years. NNEMAP began relocating to 677 East 11th Ave. in early May with plans to reopen on May 18. The pantry has been operating from a former church (along with the Short Stop Youth Center) at 1064 N. High St. since the mid-eighties. Prior to that they were based in a house on Dennison Avenue, a former parsonage, where they remained for 17 years before moving over to the High Street church. Both of their former locations were here in the Short North.

The pantry has its roots in the Fourth Avenue Christian Church food pantry that started up in the late fifties after highway construction impacted nearby neighborhoods like Flytown, causing home values to plummet, resulting in a surge of needy residents. Beginning in 1958 and over the next ten years, about a dozen churches, including Fourth Avenue Christian Church, along with the Godman Guild, worked together as the Near Northside Cooperative Ministry providing assistance. In 1969, the pantry incorporated as NNEMAP.

The Short North’s renaissance has something to do with their decision to leave. “We’ve been a resource for the Short North community as the area has transitioned over the years, but now it is time to move on to another area where there may be a greater need,” Roy Clark, executive director of NNEMAP, said in a news release.

NNEMAP provides clients with a three-day supply of groceries up to twice a month for those living in the 43201, 43211 and 43215 ZIP codes. Last year the pantry served 30,000 people. Most of their inventory comes from the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, along with private donations. The new location (across from the fairgrounds) will offer more than three times the amount of off-street parking and a better layout for shoppers. To kickstart operations, NNEMAP invites anyone to drop off canned or boxed non-perishables to the new facility during the last two weeks of May. Visit their website at www.nnemappantry.org or call 614-542-7366 to learn how to help or to get help.

Clark is grateful: “We are proud to have been part of the area’s history and are pleased to see how beautifully the community has grown and evolved over the years.”

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