North Adams High School hosts free mobile food pantry for residents

North Adams High School turned its campus in Seaman into a food distribution site Wednesday morning, offering free groceries to all during a two-hour mobile pantry stop as Adams County families faced the same cost-of-living pressures that have pushed more local residents toward food help.

The IPM Mobile Food Pantry was scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon at North Adams High School, 96 Green Devil Dr., with the district saying supplies were limited and asking families to clear out their trunks before arriving so traffic could move quickly through the lot. A North Adams High School post listed 513-561-3932 for questions.

The school setting matters. In a rural county where transportation, gas money and grocery prices can all affect whether a household makes it to a pantry, North Adams High School offered a familiar, centrally located place to load food without sending residents across the county for help. The district also said all were welcome, signaling a low-barrier stop rather than a restricted registration event.

The pantry fit into a larger network that IPM Food Pantry has built across Southeast Ohio. IPM says its FoodLink program supplies free boxes of food to schools, churches, housing complexes and agencies, and it operates mobile pantries throughout the region. The organization says it works with more than 50 community partners and distributes more than one million pounds of food each year. WCPO reported that IPM served more than 1.3 million pounds of groceries to more than 29,000 families in 2023.

For Adams County, the high school stop was part of a broader pattern of school-based food access. Adams County Ohio Valley School District has also promoted monthly Adams County Food for All mobile pantry distributions at the Adams County Fairgrounds in West Union, underscoring how school and county property have become key points in the local safety net. A previous district pantry notice said picture ID was required for registration and that a current piece of mail was needed once a year for proof of address, but the May 6 pantry notice emphasized that free groceries were available to all.

IPM has also said a 2025 grant would support pilot delivery of 100 emergency food boxes per month to community partners in rural Southwest Ohio, beginning with one hub in Adams County and expanding to at least two more. For a county where grocery bills, fuel costs and irregular work hours can leave families short at the end of the month, the pantry at North Adams High School offered immediate relief and a reminder that food access has become part of the daily mission of local schools.