Cheryl  Stebbins

2025 Maxine Rippe Award Recipient

Cheryl Stebbins has been selected by The Lutheran Foundation as the recipient of the 2025 Maxine Rippe Award. This award is given annually to recognize an individual whose past and present service to the Allen County community exemplifies Christian compassion by alleviating human suffering.

In 2017, when North Christian Church was preparing to close, the leadership at Associated Churches was considering merely closing the food pantry and simply combining it with another pantry in a different zip code location. Cheryl knew that was not best for the clients served. She informed the leadership at Associated Churches that many of the clients lacked transportation and were elderly or infirm. She pointed out that these clients would likely not be able to reach a distant location. Cheryl was instrumental in the search for a different location. Finally, Pastor Debra Meuter at Gethsemane Lutheran Church was offered the opportunity to house the pantry. If not for Cheryl there might not have been a food pantry in the 46825 zip code. Once it was decided to move the pantry to Gethsemane, Cheryl organized a meeting of her faithful volunteers and planned the remodeling of the classroom to be used as the pantry at Gethsemane. She even made new valances for the pantry windows to brighten the space. Her enthusiasm was contagious for both her volunteers and the members at Gethsemane who made the remodel come true.

Associated Churches Neighborhood Food Network is an "emergency food bank" whose stated goal is to provide a five-day supply of food to prepare balanced and nutritious meals as recommended by the Department of Agriculture nutrition guide. The Neighborhood Food Network offers families food once a month at no charge through a zip code network of local, Allen County food pantries. Cheryl has been the unpaid Food Pantry Coordinator at the Bethany Food Pantry located in Gethsemane Lutheran Church since 2017. She does the physically demanding work of shopping weekly for the food, transporting it to the pantry, unloading her truck and stocking the shelves neatly, giving the pantry the appearance of a nice grocery store. Cheryl ensures that the pantry is stocked with items that meet the Department of Agriculture’s food recommendations for nutritionally balanced meals. Thanks to her careful shopping, clients can receive eggs, cheese, beans, meat, vegetables and fruits in their monthly grocery bag. She routinely shops at multiple stores to get the best prices on these items, wisely spending the pantry’s monies.

Cheryl continues to serve the Bethany Pantry at Gethsemane week in and week out. Her commitment to the pantry, and the volunteers who staff it, is a blessing to the clients in need of food. She keeps track of the volunteer schedule, the volunteer hours, the number of individual clients served, families served, children served, and additional demographics. She submits monthly reports to Associated Churches and Gethsemane faithfully and regularly interacts with the volunteers from each of the six churches that staff the pantry. This alone is evidence of the encouragement that Cheryl offers to the volunteers from week to week. She also leaves notes of encouragement at the volunteer desk to thank them and a coffee pot to help volunteers and clients feel welcome. Her leadership skills are plainly evident in all she does, providing written communications to volunteers and even hosting thank-you meetings.

Cheryl Stebbins is very deserving of this award, for her many years of volunteer service to food insecure residents of our food pantry community.