🍽️ Hunger & Food SecurityLocal/Regional🏔️ Appalachian Ohio

Nelsonville Food Cupboard

An all-volunteer 501(c)(3) food pantry in Nelsonville that has served Athens County residents since 1989, giving more than 600 families a month a 3-day supply of groceries in Ohio's Appalachian southeast.

Entirely volunteer-run since 1989, this small Appalachian pantry gives 600+ families a month a 3-day supply of food — and individual gifts go a long way.

You give directly to Nelsonville Food Cupboard. randomcharity.com takes $0 and never touches your money.

What Nelsonville Food Cupboard does

The Nelsonville Food Cupboard is a small, all-volunteer food pantry in Nelsonville, a town in Athens County in Ohio's Appalachian southeast. It has operated since 1989, giving households a three-day supply of groceries. Families can come once a month and are also free to use the county's other pantries.

The pantry was founded by Bob Sheskey, and his family and other volunteers have kept it going. Its food has come mainly from the Southeast Ohio Regional Foodbank in Logan, supplemented by local donations, and Athens Food Rescue has sent it more than 15,000 pounds over the years. When SNAP benefits were disrupted in late 2025, it expanded to three afternoons a week (Thursday to Saturday) at its current home, the former hospital building on Mount Saint Mary's Drive.

This is a genuinely small operation. Its 2024 IRS filing shows about $75,000 in revenue against $92,000 in expenses, so individual gifts make up a real share of its budget. It says it serves more than 600 families a month. It has no website of its own; online gifts go through a GoFundMe fundraiser the pantry runs itself.

Key facts

  • All-volunteer food pantry, started in 1989 (Athens Messenger; Athens NEWS)
  • Says it serves more than 600 families a month, each with a 3-day supply of food (pantry's GoFundMe page)
  • FY2024 IRS filing: $74,611 in revenue and $92,105 in expenses (ProPublica)
  • Extended its hours to Thursday–Saturday, noon–3 p.m., during the late-2025 SNAP disruption (City of Nelsonville)

Before you give

  • No official website; online giving is via the pantry's own GoFundMe or PayPal Giving Fund.
  • Very small budget (about $75K revenue in FY2024), so individual gifts go a long way.

Common questions

Is Nelsonville Food Cupboard a legitimate charity?

Tax status: US 501(c)(3) — donations are tax-deductible for US taxpayers. It files with the IRS under EIN 51-0603535, and its annual returns are public on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. It isn't rated by the major evaluators, which is common for small, local and non-US charities. As with any charity, check its latest filings before a large gift.

Are donations to Nelsonville Food Cupboard tax-deductible?

US 501(c)(3) — donations are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.

Where does Nelsonville Food Cupboard work?

Nelsonville Food Cupboard works in Athens County, Ohio. It is based in Nelsonville, Ohio.

How do I donate to Nelsonville Food Cupboard?

Use the Donate button on this page — it goes straight to Nelsonville Food Cupboard's own donation page on gofundme.com. randomcharity.com doesn't process payments, doesn't see your card details and takes no cut.

Sources

  1. gofundme.com/f/nelsonville-food-cupboard
  2. paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/1766435
  3. projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510603535
  4. athensmessenger.com/connect/nelsonville-food-cupboard-named-january-spotlight-b
  5. athensnews.com/news/local/new-nelsonville-food-pantry-a-tribute-to-its-lat
  6. cityofnelsonville.org/2025/11/02/the-nelsonville-food-cupboard-is-expanding-its-h
  7. networks.whyhunger.org/organisation/41025

Profile researched and last reviewed September 2026. Ratings and figures change — the linked evaluator pages always show the current version.

More in Hunger & Food Security

Athens County Food Pantry

A volunteer-run nonprofit fighting food insecurity in Athens County since 1980, bolstered by the Joe Burrow Hunger Relief Fund endowment.

★★★☆ Charity Navigator🏔️ Appalachia

HAPCAP / SE Ohio Foodbank

A community action agency empowering Hocking, Athens, and Perry counties through the SE Ohio Foodbank (serving 10 counties), Head Start early childhood education, energy assistance, housing, and transportation.

★★★★ Charity Navigator🏔️ Appalachia

Kind Footprint / Empower the Barrios

A small U.S. 501(c)(3) working in low-income neighborhoods of northern Medellín, running an ambulance and emergency-response service (Emergencias Apolo), coding classes (Recode the Future), food package deliveries and a Christmas toy program.

🇨🇴 Medellín

DC Central Kitchen

Fights hunger and poverty by cooking scratch-made meals for D.C. shelters, nonprofits, youth programs and public schools — about 6.2 million in 2025 — while training adults facing barriers to employment for food-service careers.

★★★★ Charity Navigator

412 Food Rescue

Uses its own volunteer-powered Food Rescue Hero app to redirect fresh surplus food from retailers to nonprofits serving people facing food insecurity in roughly 30-minute rescue runs, fighting hunger and food waste at the same time.

★★★☆ Charity Navigator

Midwest Food Bank

A faith-based, volunteer-powered nonprofit that supplies food to about 2,400 local pantries, kitchens, shelters and other nonprofits from 12 locations across the U.S., East Africa and Haiti, distributing 139 million pounds of food in the past year.

★★★★ Charity Navigator

See all Hunger charities Browse all 119 charities

Donate ↗︎