The South­side Filling Sta­tion opened two years ago inside the SENT build­ing at 455 SE Golf Park Blvd. It oper­ates as a cli­ent-choice food pantry.

The pantry grew from a com­bin­a­tion of com­munity demand, lim­ited food access and the founder’s per­sonal exper­i­ences. Sur­veys repeatedly iden­ti­fied food as the area’s top need, while the neigh­bor­hood’s food desert status helped under­score the chal­lenge.

“That sur­vey each year tells us what we’re going to go after the next year,” said founder and exec­ut­ive dir­ector of SENT Johnathan Sub­let. “So when people come in on that and dif­fer­ent things of that nature, and food kept com­ing up.“

What can you find at the South­side Filling Sta­tion?

The Filling Sta­tion includes an abund­ance of such items as canned goods, fresh pro­duce, dairy products, eggs, meat, hygiene products and more. Avail­able products vary.

“We have a part­ner­ship with Hildebrand Dairy,” Sub­let said. “They’re phe­nom­enal part­ners. We part­ner with KC Food Hub to get pro­duce in every week. Also, we part­ner with Har­vesters. We’re also partnered with Dillon’s. They col­lect food for us. Also Aldi, so we have meat here that’s frozen. And so there’s a won­der­ful, just assort­ment of that.”

Sub­let said many people don’t real­ize the pantry can often obtain food at a lower cost than gro­cery stores, allow­ing it to fur­ther stretch dona­tions.

He said part­ner­ships help the pantry provide more than food. Dona­tions from Help­ing Hands Humane Soci­ety allow the pantry to offer dog and cat food, while Com­munity Action’s Diaper Depot sup­plies diapers, baby food and other essen­tial house­hold items that can’t be pur­chased with SNAP bene­fits.

“The other bene­fit is we know that trans­port­a­tion is a bar­rier,” Sub­let said. “So if you come for one of our other ser­vices, case man­age­ment, all those dif­fer­ent things, we arrange travel if you live within a 10-mile radius to and from your appoint­ment. You can help get travel to your appoint­ment, shop the pantry at the end of your appoint­ment and then get help get­ting home.”

Address­ing food insec­ur­ity within Hi-Crest area of Topeka

Hi-Crest ranks 4 out of 5 for food insec­ur­ity. This means many fam­il­ies here struggle to get enough healthy food, said the SENT web­site.

The nearest gro­cery stores to Avondale East are at least a mile away. Many fam­il­ies do not have a car to get there. The west side of Hi-Crest has only one bus stop, and it sits right out­side SENT’s build­ing. Hi-Crest is a food desert, a trans­port­a­tion desert, and a child­care desert, said the web­site.

In August, the Filling Sta­tion, which does not require proof of income, served 494 fam­il­ies, The Cap­ital-Journal pre­vi­ously repor­ted. Among those that accessed the ser­vice, 71% wor­ried that food would run out before they had money to buy more. 68% repor­ted that their food didn’t last and they lacked money to buy more.

“We know that we have some gro­cery stores close and they’re won­der­ful part­ners. We keep say­ing we’re not try­ing to replace the gro­cery store. We need the gro­cery stores. 71% of our com­munity, our zip code works in either food or retail. So, if we do away with those organ­iz­a­tions, we’re hurt­ing our com­munity. It’s not an either or, it’s a both ends.” Sub­let told The Cap­ital-Journal.

When can you visit the Filling Sta­tion?

The South­side Filling Sta­tion is open 9 to 11 a.m., Wed­nes­day and 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Those who are inter­ested can fill out an intake form which will also assist in con­nect­ing you with other resources that may be needed within facil­ity. There are no lim­its on monthly vis­its as the Filling Sta­tion oper­ates as a cli­ent-choice food pantry.

“We’re the only fully cli­ent choice pantry in the county. I mean you shop as close as pos­sible like a gro­cery store, but on the cart, there’s a little sign that shows you how many items you get from each cat­egory.” said Sub­let.

“But you can come every week and shop, but you get those items from each sec­tion and then you just kind of fol­low the arrows on the floor through kind of way. We do that for traffic con­trol so that there’s no ricks and you shop.” he said.