Tommy Ellett, the former Greenwood banker who came out of retirement to run the Community Food Pantry 14 years ago, stepped down Thursday.
So the pantry folks threw a surprise party for him at the pantry, which is on Browning Road, on his final day. At least 25 people showed up, and many were the pantry’s beloved volunteers.
“I am shocked! I thought something was going on — but all of these people!” Ellett exclaimed.
Ellett, who is 83, said earlier in the day that, over the years, the volunteers “just amazed me that they were willing to give up their time so unselfishly.” There are13 regulars who work in the morning or afternoon two days a week to assemble boxes of food and distribute them to people in need.
“He loves people, and he wants everyone to have what they need,” said volunteer Joyce Shook of Greenwood. “He is good to the volunteers. We are going to miss him. We love him.”
His devotion was particularly evident when COVID-19 affected the pantry, she said. Some volunteers who are older decided they shouldn’t participate for a while because the threat of exposure to the virus. So younger volunteers pitched in for a while.
“Tommy was there for the whole thing,” Shook said. “He was there to make sure people got food.”
In fact, Ellett said he missed only two days at the pantry over his tenure as director, and one of these was because he had shoulder surgery.
He retired as the Greenwood branch president of AmSouth Bank in 2001 and accepted the job at the pantry in 2007.
Managing the pantry, which was distributing 700 boxes of food each month before the pandemic, has required him to be available when the pantry is not open.
“I have kept my phone with me every day of the week in case we have an emergency,” he said.
Sometimes there’s been a house fire or maybe a death in the family. And if the pastor of any church calls to ask for assistance for a person in need, the pantry always responds, even if the person has not qualified with the pantry to receive the food.
The rule is that to sign up for the food boxes, one must live in Leflore County and be a food stamp recipient who receives $100 or less per month from the program. When the pandemic hit, the number of customers dropped off. One reason might be that they were having difficulty getting recertified for food stamps. Ellett said they would have been given the food anyway, but people wouldn’t know that.
Also, there were pandemic-related disruptions in the food distribution chain. Grocery stores were having trouble stocking shelves with staples, such as pasta and rice, and the pantry’s supplies ran low. Ellett worked with two Delta rice farmers, and they brought three tons of rice to the pantry, where it was packaged for distribution.
Decorations on a cake for Tommy Ellett express how the Greenwood Food Pantry’s supporters feel about his retirement. (Photo by Susan Montgomery)
The pantry is one of the 13 agencies that United Way of Leflore County helps support. Its director, Courtney Kimmel, is among those who helped with distribution during the early days of the pandemic. She’s also one of Ellett’s admirers.
“As director of the Community Food Pantry, Mr. Ellett has taken on the role of inventory, delivery man, grocery packer, financial advisor, bookkeeper, personnel director and head cheerleader,” she said in an email. “He worked tirelessly to put together and serve boxes of food that help support those in need in our community for 14 years. Mr. Ellett is a kind, compassionate, hard-working, humble man who has been an invaluable asset to the Food Pantry and our community. He will be greatly missed by the volunteers and all the customers of the Food Pantry that know and love him.”
Ellett said, “I am going to miss it, but I really think I need to move on.” He’s also ready to hand over the key to his successor, Laura Oakes of Greenwood.
Oakes, 66, will start her job as director Tuesday.
“Tommy has built a great program, and nobody can replace him,” she said. “He has been such an asset to the community.”
One change that will be implemented with her arrival is that distribution days will be held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays. This will allow volunteers a longer time for their own activities on the weekend.
She recently retired from teaching physical education to elementary students at Pillow Academy.
She said Timmy Lott, a member of the board, called her about taking the job. She taught at Pillow for 15 years, but she said, “I was not ready to not just do anything.”
Oakes continued, “God put me in the right place at the right time.”
- Contact Susan Montgomery at smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
