It seems appropriate an appreciation dinner will mark the final chapter of the Covenant Cupboard food pantry.

The dinner will be Tuesday in the fellowship hall at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 230 E. Jefferson St., beginning with a 6 p.m. registration and a 6:30 p.m. dinner for all the volunteers who worked at the cupboard during its nearly 40 years of operation.

David Blewett, the next-to-last cupboard manager said he started working for the food bank in 2003 following his retirement from Butler County Community College.

“In 2005, when Sam Peters was diagnosed with cancer, I was asked to take over,” Blewett said.

It was a position he would hold until November when Covenant Presbyterian pastor the Rev. Jim Swanson took over.

But Swanson said by then the church was re-evaluating the future of the food pantry.

Swanson said the food bank began on Dec. 19, 1977, as a church ministry but, with the 1982 closing of the Pullman-Standard plant, it became a community agency affiliated with Butler County Community Action which supplied it with some of its food.

Swanson said Covenant Cupboard provided food four times a month at the church with the help of eight rotating teams of six people each, volunteers from Covenant and other churches.

Churches providing volunteer teams included Christ Community Methodist Church, First United Methodist Church, Grace @ Calvary Lutheran Church, Hill Presbyterian Church, St. Peter Anglican Church, Faith United Presbyterian Church, East Butler Presbyterian Church and Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Many of the volunteers, Blewett and Swanson agreed, put in 15 to 20 years of service at the food bank.

Blewett said, during distribution days, “We had two tables, one with government food, one with food donations.

“Recipients would select the items they wanted,” Blewett said, adding recipients were limited to one food pickup per month.

But the demand for the cupboard's food — government commodities provided by Community Action and staples purchased with donated money — began to slack off in the last several years.

Church records show from October 2005 to March 2006 the cupboard helped an average of 156 families per month. During the first four months of 2017, the average was 59 families per month.

During some distribution days, reduced from four to three times a month, it wasn't uncommon for there to be more volunteers than patrons served, Swanson said.

Swanson said, “In the last few months, we were getting 75 households. At the peak, we served 250.”

Blewett said it didn't help that the volunteers who picked up, packed and sorted the food were all growing older.

Most of the volunteers were retirees, Blewett said.

“We did the distribution on Mondays and Tuesday from 9 to 11 a.m. If people have a job or are going to school, they are not going to be there,” he said.

Blewett said he can't explain the shrinking number of people seeking food from the cupboard.

Blewett said, “For the people served by the cupboard, the factors haven't changed at all. We suspect the availability of hot meals around Butler had something to do with it.”

Swanson said there are 11 locations in Butler serving lunch or dinner on different days.

Covenant Presbyterian referred its patrons to two nearby food banks, St. Vincent DePaul and the Salvation Army.

Swanson said, “No dependents have been left in the lurch.”

Blewett said the cupboard's remaining food was divided between St. Vincent DePaul and the Lighthouse in Middlesex Township.

The Covenant operation sent its remaining funds — $5,000 — to the St. Vincent DePaul food pantry.

Blewett said three freezers and three metal conveyors used to unload food still need new homes.

Tuesday's dinner is meant to recognize the many volunteers during the food bank's nearly 40 years, Blewett said.

Swanson said, “Already 105 have indicated they will be attending. There will be a catered meal and an evening of story-telling and fellowship and prayers for the faithful hunger ministry now concluded.”