Every Saturday morning, you’ll find Lillian Bynum volunteering at the Mount Ida food pantry in Troy.

“I like to see people eat,” Bynum said. “I don’t like to see people struggle.”

What You Need To Know

  • For over 20 years, the Mount Ida food pantry has been keeping Troy residents fed

  • They serve an average of 250 families each month, and the need for help is only growing

  • Pantry volunteer Lillian Bynum feeds the homeless at her home on Saturdays after the pantry

For over 20 years, the pantry has been keeping Troy residents fed. They serve an average of 250 families each month, and the need for help is only growing.

“People are still struggling, it’s hard,” Bynum said. “Especially if you have more than two children you’re trying to feed.”

It’s a struggle Bynum knows all too well. Between her and partner, they have 17 children.
Some weeks she needs support too.

She helps out at the pantry when she can and takes from it when she needs.

“Well it helps a lot because we always run out of refrigerator food,” she said. “This saves me from having to wait another month to get money to get refrigerator food to refill my refrigerator. It’s a struggle for everyone nobody should be ashamed to get free food.”

Bynum gives back in more ways than just one. After the pantry, Saturday afternoons from 2 p.m. until dusk on the corner of 4th and Adams in Troy, she fires up the grill and makes home-cooked meals for people in need.

“It could happen to anybody, the struggle of being hungry,” she said. “I’ve been hungry at times. You can’t be ashamed to be hungry you have to eat.”

With her kids by her side helping her, Bynum makes sure they see how important it is to give back,

“I want them to care about people, so that’s another thing, I want them to see me doing good positive things,” Bynum said.