Food pantry re-opens after temporary closure due to lack of supplies - KMOV.com

Food pantry re-opens after temporary closure due to lack of supplies - KMOV.com

(Credit: KMOV)

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV.com) - The Jefferson Barracks Military Food Pantry is opening its doors this weekend for the first time in two weeks.  It closed on October 22 for only the second time in its history due to a lack of donations.

The shelves were 99 percent empty, with only a few packages of macaroni and cheese and spaghetti left.

“It was horrible because we have veterans who come here.  Some of our deployed soldiers have come to me and asked if their families could come here and shop while they’re deployed for a year.  Of course our answer is always yes,” volunteer Linda Ferguson said.

“It was bad.  Two weeks ago we had to close the doors.  We couldn’t open as we had scheduled because we had no food on the shelves,” fellow volunteer Nancy Amundson added.

The volunteers had to turn veterans and active members of the military away. 

That changed Sunday morning.  After a call for help went viral on social media the food pantry received approximately 30,000 pounds of food in donations.  Now, they have another problem. There is more food than they have room for on the shelves. 

“We can’t even begin to say how blessed we are that the St. Louis community has come to our aid and helped us restock the food pantry shelves.  Now we can serve the men and women who serve us,” Amundson said.

 “The response in the past week with our reach out has been overwhelming,” Ferguson said.

The Jefferson Barracks Military Food Pantry provides food for anyone with military identification.  It does not matter who they are, where they live or how long they have been out of active duty.

In 2014, the food pantry provided for 1,860 military families.  In 2015, it provided for 2,455 military families.  This past year 39 tons of food got purchased.

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