Tea Area Cupboard opens on Main

Tea’s food pantry made the move to a new location on Main Avenue and opened to the public on Oct. 21.

After around 20 years in Trinity Lutheran Church, the Tea Food Pantry moved into its own space at 125 S. Main Avenue with a new name - Tea Area Cupboard. Board member Amanda McKnelly noted that Ruth Anderson was a huge part of the pantry for all of those years and expressed her thankfulness.

About a year and a half ago, a group of people started talking about needing to service more people in the community. The church was running out of room for their Sunday school classes.

After deciding to open the pantry in its own space, a board of five members was formed, a director was hired, they incorporated and got a tax ID number and are waiting for their 501c3.

“It just started as needing more space. There was limited things that they could take donations for because they didn’t have the room for it,” McKnelly said. “This was a perfect space, a perfect opportunity.”

At Trinity, they had a small freezer, one big freezer, a small fridge and some shelves. The clothing donations were housed in the lobby of the church.

Now in the new space, they have lots of shelves and storage, a place for deliveries, a large refrigerator and an additional freezer. With the addition of the large fridge, they can take some butter, cheeses and milk in addition to eggs they get from the high school ag class.

“We’ve had lots of people step up that have been super excited knowing that we want to give and how can we help because now there’s space, so that’s been really, really cool to see everybody in the community already step up and want to help,” she said.

Anyone who can show proof that they live in the school district’s boundary can come in and help themselves to the items they need. The cupboard is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-7 p.m. or by appointment. Find out more about the cupboard on Facebook or by calling 605-709-7090.

McKnelly helped with the mobile food distribution in Tea that ended in July. With the end of that distribution, she expects to see an uptick in customers at the cupboard.

Most of the food in the cupboard right now was moved from Trinity and food ordered through Feeding South Dakota. McKnelly said food, clothing and monetary donations can be dropped off at the cupboard during open hours or different drop sites around town like Fareway or many of the churches.

Right now the cupboard is in most need of pancake mix, syrup, toilet paper, canned fruit, saltine crackers, hotdogs, Hamburger Helper, hats and gloves.

McKnelly looks forward to serving the community.

“We’re open and we’re here for them…If they need, they need,” McKnelly said.