The Talawanda Oxford Pantry and Social Services (TOPSS) aims to finish construction on a new $1.8 million facility by fall 2025 after merging with the Family Resource Center earlier this year.
For the past seven months, Heather Hodge, a single mom and Oxford resident, has used the Talawanda Oxford Pantry and Social Services (TOPSS) to fill in those extra gaps between pay days, and she's not the only one.
"Some places make me feel judged and stuff for coming to get help, but they've always been super nice," Hodge said.
TOPSS' resources are designed to help those in need through pantry services, emergency rent or utility assistance while also providing a support system. Since merging with the Family Resource Center (FRC) in April, TOPSS has expanded its services even more.
Sherry Martin, the executive director for TOPSS, said the conversation to consolidate started because of their proximity to each other, a shared demographic and a national trend of nonprofits going out of business. For about a year and a half before merging, FRC ran with only Interim Executive Director Nicola Rodrigues and two staff members.
After the first year of running with no director, the staff at FRC decided it was time to discuss a legitimate merge with the TOPSS board.
"It just seemed like a good fit," Martin said, "... [and] a lot of people thought we were merged already [anyway]."
Rodrigues said during the COVID-19 pandemic, the city wanted a proposal from the social work agencies and how they would utilize funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). As the two social agencies, TOPSS and FRC collaborated on a joint proposal.
When it finally came to fruition about a year ago, the city awarded $1.8 million in ARPA funding to TOPSS. The funding further pushed the two in the direction of collaborating and merging and moving forward with a new building, "providing more of a one stop shop type of service," Rodrigues said.
Their combined vision is to become the community hub, making it easier for neighbors in need to access many of the local social service organizations by building a campus, according to a TOPSS merger presentation.
The new building will be located behind the current three already on TOPSS property. Martin said they hope to move into it no later than fall 2025.
She said the goal is to be one collective pantry, not split into two buildings and different office spaces. The front building, now housing part of the pantry, will become a community space.
"Maybe we can serve meals, or maybe we can have coffee for people, and they can come hang out and sit or people could have community meetings, things like that," Martin said.
According to the presentation, the building will include showers, laundry, computer stations, a place to eat hot meals, phone charging stations, a tornado shelter and resources from partnering agencies.
"FRC has been a very, very old organization," Rodrigues said, "and I think separately we each [support different parts] of the community well and can only be stronger together going forward."
