Our Mission

Our Mission is to alleviate food insecurity in our community one family at a time by providing them with one week's worth of nutritious groceries.  The Wesley Food Pantry is unique in a number of important ways:

• We were the first food pantry in the community to offer evening pantry hours.  Pantry clients who worked during normal business hours needed a pantry that they could visit after work.
• We are Choice Model pantry. Clients are allowed to choose the food items that best suits their families needs.  We do not distribute prepacked grocery bags unless the clients request them. 
• We strive to address the root causes of food insecurity by providing our clients with health, education, employment, and social services information.
• We promote childhood literacy by giving each child 3 books to take home with them each time they visit the pantry.  Additionally, we provide the children with crafts and activities while they visit the pantry.

Our History

In the fall of 2006, the Eastern Illinois Foodbank informed church members of the ​Wesley United Methodist Church in Urbana that there was an urgent need for a food pantry in Champaign County that offered emergency food during evening hours.  In response to this need, three church members; Donna Camp, Lee Boyer, and Dan King Crede, started the Wesley Evening Food Pantry that November.  The very first food distribution served a family of 5, we now provide food to an average of 1600 people every month.

In the fall of 2013, the Wesley Food Pantry opened a student only location at Parkland College to help serve struggling students. In the fall of 2014, the Wesley Food Pantry at Parkland College was opened to the public as a weekly USDA commodity pantry. 

In the fall of 2016, the Evening Pantry location added college students only hours to address the rising rates of food insecurity among college students.