Carol Strock

In a house with six siblings, you’re going to learn a few things. And many of those lessons are still helpful today to Carol Strock. 

“You definitely learn a lot,” said Carol, who is the Director of the food pantry at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in West Deptford. “You learn how to cook and make food stretch.  We always cooked and we didn’t order out.” 

Carol grew up in National Park and lives there today. She worked at a residential healthcare facility and also ran her own childcare facility at home. To take care of her mother, she stopped working. Then, she ended up taking care of her father and father-in-law. 

It was about 12 years ago that Volunteers of America asked if she would take care of the pantry. She wasn’t working at the time and decided to give it a try. Now, all these years later, she’s not only taking care of the pantry, but she’s taking care of so many people in her community. 

“I like giving back to the community,” Carol said. “I’ve never lacked help with all the volunteers. I did have to learn to delegate, that was the hardest thing.” 

Her lessons in making things stretch have kept the pantry going. At one point, there was only $100 in the accounts. But with the help of the congregation, people soon responded, and they had enough funding to keep everything going. 

Carol’s also taught those caring lessons to her two daughters, who have helped at the pantry and served neighbors in need. 

“Running the food pantry gives you a purpose, and it’s something to teach my grandchildren values.”