TIPP CITY — As Miami County grows, so does one of the county’s largest nonprofit organizations, The New Path, Inc. The organization is calling new places home and offering new programs for residents of the community.

“Last year was a tremendous year for our organization and 2024 will continue to be a year of growth,” said William Lutz, executive director of the organization. “Our pantries saw visits in 2023 that were 35% higher than 2022 and there is no signs of those numbers going in the other direction.”

Lutz’s report continues:

Citing economic concerns and less public assistance going to households, the New Path Food Pantries will continue to be busy. “Last year, we saw some of the public assistance programs, such as Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program finally go back to assistance levels that existed before the pandemic. The problem came that while assistance levels retreated, many prices for food and household goods did not, it created a crunch for many households and created more demands for what we do,” said Lutz.

2023 also saw the moving of one of the organization’s two retail stores, The Gleaning Place, to a new storefront in West Milton.

“We were very sad to lose our lease for our downtown West Milton location. Not only were we sad, but the West Milton community was also concerned that we would leave. Fortunately, we were able to find a location in the community and we are excited to continue to be in West Milton,” said Lutz.

The new store, located at 26 Lowry Drive, is still open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to provide gently used household goods and home furnishings. “Everything that our customers loved about our old store exists at the new store. We are so grateful to the entire community for their support of our ministries,” said Lutz.

Perhaps the biggest opportunity for 2024 is the continuation of the Clubhouse program under the New Path banner.

“Clubhouse has been a strong educational enrichment program for the last thirty years throughout Troy, Tipp City and Piqua. This program has helped teens, kids and families grow and we are excited to help continue the strong work of Clubhouse moving forward,” said Lutz.

In 2023, the two organizations, Clubhouse and New Path merged to have all the activities of the two organizations under the New Path umbrella. “This arrangement allows both organizations to grow together and we are excited about the future of our programs and activities,” Lutz said speaking about the organizational merger.

When it comes to needs, the agency can always use donations and volunteers. “We have a great core group of volunteers and we are always willing to welcome more people into our effort,” said Sherry Loschi. “We benefit from having locations throughout Miami County; places like GIVE in Covington, Anna’s Closet in Troy, the Gleaning Place in West Milton, our food pantries. All these places need volunteers and all strongly contribute to our mission of loving our neighbors.”

Individuals and organizations wanting to learn more about The New Path, Inc. are encouraged to check out the New Path website at www.newpathserves.org.