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Reach Out Lakota, community pantry serving West Chester & Liberty Townships

Strategic Plan

2025 – 2029 Strategic Plan

A Look Back…And Ahead

The past year has been a time of restoring hope and dignity. Neighbors that many of us know through work, church, or our schools have faced tough times. The weight of their individual challenges brought many to Reach Out Lakota. Thanks to so many who support our mission, they found some relief.

2024 Impact

  • 13,400 visits (700 families, consisting of 2,800 household members, who visited multiple times during the year)
  • This is a 15 percent increase in visits (after 30% increases in both 2023 and 2022)
  • 51% of those helped were children ages 0-17
  • 216 NEW families
  • 372,000 pounds of food distributed
  • 44,100 personal care and hygiene products given out
  • 89,400 articles of clothing and household items provided

School supplies to 700 children, holiday toys to 1,000+ children, Thanksgiving Meals, and Holiday Meals 

Tackling Food and Clothing Insecurity in the Future

Did you know Reach Out Lakota has been this community’s food and clothing pantry for more than 32 years? We often say that we hope we go out of business one day. But until that time when there are no local children, seniors, veterans or others facing food insecurity, we will focus on providing a helping hand up.

 ROL’s board of directors spent much time in 2024 to plan for our next five years and beyond. This involved looking at historical data, local poverty statistics and trends, and evaluating our physical space and other assets. The result is a new five-year Strategic Plan that also took into account a 10-year outlook.

 For example, what do we need to do to ensure we’ll continue to be able to help address the needs of our community’s vulnerable population? What can we be doing to both help them stabilize in the short term and then move toward self-sufficiency?

  • We will be focused on diversifying our funding sources, as well as building an endowment that will both sustain our lifeline services and expand our reach to the local families we serve.
  • After being in our current building for 20 years, and big increases in the number of families reaching out for help, we simply need more space. We will identify the best, most cost-effective solution for achieving more space for our operations.
  • While Reach Out Lakota exists to help struggling individuals and families with their emergency needs for food and clothing, we also work with partner organizations that can help our clients on their road to financial self-sufficiency once these critical needs are stabilized. We will be establishing more formal collaborations to achieve this goal.

The Care Center – Removing Barriers to Self-Sufficiency

This organization is a great example of how we at ROL can connect those we serve with other experts. The Care Center helps people put a plan into action to help remove barriers and build resources they need to thrive in life.

 Christin with the Care Center comes to our pantry several times a month to focus on jobs. “Do you need a job? Are you looking for a higher paying job?” Her invitation to their free classes and programs has resulted in some great personal successes this month. One man who attended Job Jumpstart (a three-day class) practiced interview skills, received interview clothes, and found a job. Now his wife is signing up for the resume class!

 Another woman attended a job search class, then entered the Spark mentorship program for one year. With this program, she has set monthly goals with her mentor for the opportunity of $150 per goal toward her rent or utilities.

Thank you for the help! We are in a good place now – my husband got a new job and we will be fine! God bless all of you!

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