To Indiana and Beyond!

On Monday, Alex and I ventured out to find a few more OBB sites. This time we focused exclusively on Preble County, a large rural county situated just north of Butler County. A few weeks ago, we sent some letters to some agencies/organizations/churches that seemed like a good fit with the OBB. We told them we would be in the area on Monday, May 3rd, and that we would love to set up a time to meet with them and talk about the OBB. Otherwise, we would just stop in to say hello.

We didn't hear from anyone, so when we hit the road Monday morning, we didn't know what to expect. After a little less than an hour of driving, we arrived at Higher Heights Church of God, a small church outside of Camden, Ohio. They have a food pantry there, and we were hoping they would expand their services to include the Ohio Benefit Bank, as well. And guess what--they loved the idea! We hope to bring them on board as a site in the coming week or so.

We were one for one.

After that, our journey went a little downhill. We drove all over rural Preble County looking for small food pantries/food banks on our list. Many of the addresses we had were either non-existent or led us to residential neighborhoods. We drove around, desperately searching for some signs of these places, but just couldn't find them. When we arrived in Eaton, we were able to find the agencies, but no one was there for us to speak with! So we had to leave our information and hope to follow up soon.

Finally the last stop of the day was a church/school in New Paris, Ohio. We programmed the GPS and took off. After about 30 minutes of driving through cornfields and soybean rows, we realized that we were getting closer and closer to the Indiana state line. Still, our address was an Ohio one, so we pressed on. When the GPS indicated that we had arrived, we looked around to find ourselves on a small farm. It didn't look right, but we saw a man working on a tractor so we figured we'd pull in and at least ask for directions. Turns out this man was very friendly. And chatty. He pointed to a dirt path leading up a hill and into some woods, and said that was the direction we needed to go. He then proceeded to talk to us for a LONG time about the property, as well as the flora and fauna within. We slowly and graciously backed away towards the car before we finally said "Okay, thanks, bye!" just so we could keep moving!

Now in the car, we drove down a dusty dirt road that twisted and turned through the woods. Finally we made it to the school only to find that we had, indeed, crossed the Indiana border along the way. Not wanting to recruit an Indiana site to use an Ohio program, we kept on driving until we were back on the highway. The GPS was confused, but eventually we found our way back to the Buckeye State:

We'll stop at nothing (including the state line!) to find more OBB sites.

Today we're headed into Warren County to start site recruitment there. We have more than 40 sites to visit, which we have divided up over 4 days. We're hoping we have better luck finding the sites on our list this time, and that we don't end up in another state!