Brief history
BritVil Community Food Pantry was created in 1991, largely due to the dream and hard work of two Britton Christian Church members, Ernestine Thomas and Winifred Owens. They wanted to provide food to families experiencing economic difficulties primarily in the Britton and Village neighborhoods of Oklahoma City. BritVil serves clients in four zip codes, 73114, 73120, 73105, and 73131.
Today, BritVil has 90 volunteers that staff the pantry each week. BritVil Community Food Pantry was a reality, opening its doors October 1, 1991. It was incorporated on April 27, 1992. The proper way IRS designation for a nonprofit is 501(c)(3). BritVil has an agency relationship with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.
A few stats
BritVil is open Monday thru Friday from 9:00 am to 11:00 am and serves low-income families with minor children as well as low, fixed-income senior citizens and veterans. Others are considered on the basis of disabilities or current financial crisis. We serve on average 125 families per week with that number climbing to about 150 families during the holidays. The Britton/Village area we serve has a median family income of $29,047.24 and is ranked as the second highest poverty area in Oklahoma City.
BritVil is a volunteer based organization and teams of 90 volunteers work in harmony conducting client interviews, re-stocking shelves, filling client food orders, unloading boxes from food deliveries and picking up food from local grocery stores and restaurants.
100% of BritVil’s funding comes from grants and donations from various, churches, schools, civic and fraternal organizations and individuals.
The faces of BritVil
We see young, single mothers who work part-time and go to school part-time with hopes upon graduation to get a better paying job to make a better life for her family.
Young, hopeful, eager faces greet her every morning and evening asking what’s for breakfast and what’s for dinner knowing the refrigerator and cupboards are empty at the end of the month when her part-time money has run out.
We see senior citizens many of which are veterans who have never quite recovered from their injuries or from the horrors they witnessed overseas.
In many cases, their social security checks don’t quite cover their living expenses plus the high cost of their medications and their need for nutritious food.
We see young, sad faces whose parents have made bad life decisions that they now have to pay the consequences for, but they shouldn’t have to do it on an empty stomach.
We see all these faces plus so much more and it is our job, our duty to help out by providing them with one of life’s most basic necessities, food.