Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Some people talk about taking care of their community.
Ken Ross built an entire organization around it.
Ken is the Founder and Board Chair of the Honey Brook Food Pantry, and for anyone who has watched what he and his team have built over the years, the word "remarkable" barely scratches the surface. What started as a community-driven effort to serve area residents in need has grown into one of the most comprehensive, compassionate food assistance organizations in our region, operating entirely on volunteer power and fueled entirely by the generosity of people who believe that neighbors should take care of neighbors.
At Lyons & Hohl, we've called this corner of Pennsylvania home for nearly 50 years. Honey Brook is our home base. The Twin Valley community is where our people live, work, and raise their families. So when we talk about investing in the community we serve, the Honey Brook Food Pantry isn't just a natural fit. It's personal.
What the Pantry Does
The scope of what the Honey Brook Food Pantry delivers each month goes well beyond what most people imagine when they picture a food pantry.
In 2025 alone, the Pantry served more than 15,000 individuals. That includes 5,453 children, 2,839 seniors, and thousands of families navigating the kinds of urgent crises that most of us hope we never face: evictions, utility shutoffs, medical hardship, and more.
Every eligible family receives approximately one week's worth of food at each distribution, held twice monthly. That means meat, dairy, produce, canned goods, cereal, peanut butter, juice, and prepared foods. It means laundry detergent and personal hygiene products. It means a free market of new and gently used clothing, furniture, toys, and household items available at every visit.
But the Pantry's reach goes far beyond food.
The Kids' Backpack Program serves 130 children with ready-to-eat and easy-to-prepare foods during the school year, and kid food boxes during the summer months when school meals aren't available. A Nutritional Supplement Program supports nearly 80 families with children newborn through age 3, providing specialized foods, educational materials, and counseling during the most critical window of early development. Monthly diabetes-specific food support and health education is available for clients managing that condition. A Garden for Life Program grows fresh vegetables distributed right at the pantry.
The Pantry also addresses health more broadly. Clients have access to onsite medical testing, dental consultations, vision testing for children, flu shots, and haircuts. Healthy cooking demonstrations are offered at every distribution. Assistance navigating Medicaid, SNAP, and the Women, Infants and Children Program is available on-site.
And then there's the work being done to move families toward long-term independence.
Nearly 2,700 unique families have been registered with the Pantry since its founding. Roughly 30% of those families have achieved full food independence. That number represents the deeper mission at work here: not just to feed people, but to walk alongside them as they build stability.
CareerLink provides employment support through job leads and HR consultations at the Pantry. Legal Aid helps families navigate a wide range of legal questions. PA 211 connects clients with Chester County Human Services. The United Way of Chester County alone helped prepare and submit 177 successful mobile home tax appeals in 2025, saving those families nearly $1,000 per household in taxes. Anchored Ministries' Clothing Closet offers nearly 1,000 free items per visit.
The Pantry also shows up at the holidays. In November, hundreds of households received a full Thanksgiving dinner. In December, 1,131 individuals from 332 families received a complete Christmas dinner, along with more than 600 coats and toys for more than 400 children. At Easter, 940 individuals from 295 families were provided a full Easter meal.
Emergency food needs? Generally met within 24 hours of a request.
This is not a food pantry in the traditional sense. This is a community lifeline, operating 365 days a year, run entirely by volunteers, sustained entirely by the support of people who believe in the mission.
Why This Matters to Us
Ken Ross built something that reflects everything we believe in as a company.
He saw a need. He took ownership of it. He built a team around a mission that was bigger than any one person. And he has kept showing up, year after year, to make sure that the most vulnerable families in our community are not invisible.
That kind of quiet, consistent, community-rooted leadership is something we recognize and respect deeply at Lyons & Hohl. It mirrors the values we try to bring to our own work every day.
We were proud to present the Honey Brook Food Pantry with a $20,000 donation in support of their mission. Pictured at the check presentation were Ken Ross (Founder & Board Chair), Becky Zeeger (Board Director), volunteer Jim Finlan, and our own Jo Painter.
This donation is part of a broader giving initiative Lyons & Hohl has undertaken to support eight organizations across Chester, and Lancaster counties. We'll be sharing more about each of those organizations in the weeks ahead.
For now, we simply want to say thank you to Ken, to the board, to the volunteers, and to everyone who makes the Honey Brook Food Pantry possible. What you have built matters. And we are honored to play a small part in helping it continue.
To learn more, donate, or find out how to volunteer with the Honey Brook Food Pantry, visit honeybrookfoodpantry.org.