Don't Forget the Clark County Area Food Pantry and Resource Center with your Holiday Donations, Part 3
Monday, December 14th, 2015 -- 12:09 PM
-With the holiday season upon us, donations to the Clark County Area Food Pantry and Resource Center are very important.I spoke with Judy Morrow and Deanna Heiman, who were instrumental in getting the Food Pantry going, about the importance of donating and the challenges of running a facility like this. The Food Pantry helps out a lot of people each month.
Deanna: "On average, we're serving 200 people per month and about 20% of our clients are over the age of 60. So, we serve many elderly clients. The average amount of food we're giving out per month is 4,500 pounds."
Judy explained the challenges of running a facility like this.
Judy: "When it comes to challenges, first of all, I think our first challenge is to educate the community and recipients and the volunteers about a food pantry being a necessity that people don't want to be in the position to have to use, but need to from time-to-time. So, we need to educate everyone that we need to respect those that need it. It's not a free-for-all."
"Another challenge is that we are the county seat. So, many times we get phone calls from social services or maybe somebody just got out of prison and they need food right away. So, we're open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we have the challenge of getting volunteers to answer those requests by appointment."
"The other challenge, of course, is keeping enough food in the food pantry. So, we do buy from Feed My People and we do get donations and we appreciate very single food drive that we've had. The children and youth from the schools have been awesome. But we do actually, is after Tuesdays and Thursdays night, go in and check and make sure we have enough food for the next day. So, the shelves are not piled full. Some people may come in and think we have no food. But we have been challenged and meeting up to that challenge, I think, pretty well with keeping enough food for each day that opens up. So, there are many challenges to keeping a food pantry."
Coming up on Tuesday, we'll hear about the importance of donating this time of year and all year round.
For More:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=15590
Part 2: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=15598
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.