PITTSBURG, Kan. — Wesley House will soon be able to ramp up its food pickup efforts and speed up the process thanks to community funding for a new pallet lift. 

Wesley House, an outreach ministry of the First United Methodist Church, recently received a $1,000 check from the Pittsburg Noon Rotary Club for its new pallet lift. It all began with the help of a Pittsburg State University student.   

“A Pitt State student, a social work student named Lydia Zerr, reached out to us several months ago saying that she wanted to do a project for Wesley House and asked what our biggest needs were,” said Wesley House Executive Director Matt O’Malley.  

“We threw at her our most expensive need, which was a pallet stacker. It’s a real specialty tool to be able to put two pallets on top of each other, to be able to store things better in our warehouse  

O’Malley then noted how much the pallet lift will help out the local non-profit.  

“The biggest reason we need a pallet stacker is often we get really large donations where we show up with our van and the company puts a whole pallet in the back of our van,” said O’Malley. “When we get back to the Wesley House, we have to unload those pallets box by box, by hand.  

“It’s really challenging, it takes too much time for us, and so that’s sort of the main reason why the pallet stacker is going to be a great tool. Lydia (Zerr) really took it on herself to go present at both Rotary Clubs, she went all throughout town seeking donations from individuals and from businesses and has raised enough money.”  

O’Malley noted that the pallet lift, or pallet stacker, was ordered on Monday and is expected to arrive within the next several weeks.  

“It’ll help us to be more efficient and to be able to store things in our warehouse in a way that frees up space for us,” he added. “It was really a cool project. I was really amazed that a college student could take on a $5,200 project.”  

Student assistance 

Last week as well, Wesley House received assistance from the Lambda Chi Alpha brothers along with the Alpha Gamma Delta sisters from Pittsburg State University.  

The Alpha Gamma Delta sisters volunteered with the food pantry while the Lambda Chi Alpha brothers unloaded a whole semi truck’s worth of food.  

“The college has a food pantry that’s called ‘Gorilla Pantry’ and I think that program, which is in the (Overman) Student Center, introduces college students to the fact that a lot of people in our area don’t have, for lots of different reasons, enough resources to fully stock their fridge and their pantry,” said O’Malley. “These organizations reach out to us. There’s actually a new employee at Pittsburg State which happens to be my wife whose job is to connect students with service opportunities.”  

With seven core values including loyalty, duty, respect, and service, the fraternity is planning to spend the remainder of the semester assisting Wesley House whenever the truck arrives.  

“The Alpha Gam girls, sisters, that was their week of service, so they go out every year and do a week of service and I think this is the third consecutive year that they’ve come to Wesley House to serve the food pantry,” O’Malley said. “The fraternity was a new need. We have a truck that shows up every second Friday, a full semi-truck. We, as in staff, our very small staff, have to unload this truck by hand and not only unload it, but we have to then take the stuff off the pallets and take it into our pantry to stock the shelves. It’s a really big job that takes us an entire day to do.  

“We reached out to Lacy O’Malley at Pitt State and she was able to find a fraternity that was looking for a service project. But not only for our February need, but Lacy booked them throughout the rest of the school year … I think it’s amazing that Pitt State students are looking for ways to get involved in their community that may not even be their home.”  

For more information on Wesley House or to volunteer, visit wesleyhouseumc.org or call 620-232-3760.    

This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.