Healdton food pantry provides food year-round - Daily Ardmoreite

Healdton food pantry provides food year-round - Daily Ardmoreite

By Stephen Lamarstephen.lamar@ardmoreite.com

HEALDTON—While for many Thanksgiving means a plentiful feast of turkey, ham, side dishes and a collection of desserts, for some simply having a guaranteed meal is something to be thankful for during the holidays.
Students at Healdton Public Schools are working each week to ensure that families and children in the community that have limited access to food are taken care of via the school’s food pantry. Even in the small town of Healdton, poverty and food insecurity is a problem for many families, something the students helping with the pantry have learned.
“I think the kids have realized, really for the first time, that hunger is a major problem in our town,” Amy Worsham, Healdton High School FCCLA advisor, said. “We do have a lot of low-income people in our community.”
Worsham, who helps run and organize the food pantry along with several students, said students line the shelves of the pantry each week with food that’s ordered from the Regional Food Bank.
Silently, hungry students go to the pantry each week to get food, a necessity for some families in the community.
“They get to go home and eat a bag of chips where these kids they don’t have that,” Worsham said of the students who receive food each week from the pantry. “They’d be surprised at the kids they’re sitting next to in class that their parents come and get food.”
Worsham said typically the food bags contain two vegetables and a protein for each meal and the pickup process is anonymous. All of the food options are healthy and
nutritional, ensuring the families get the nutrients they need. Worsham said the students who help put the bags together have commented many times on the amount of food that goes into each bag.
“Planning wise the kids don’t really see that part because I tell them what to put in the bags,” she said. “But when we put them in the bags the kids are seeing how much food it is and they’re seeing what it takes to feed a family.”
Worsham said during the holidays and other breaks, the amount of food that leaves the pantry increases significantly, as families reach out for food.
“I’m having a lot of parents call me,” she said of the holidays. “Anytime there’s a holiday and anytime there’s a break.
“Two weeks over Christmas — that’s a long time with no food.”
During a time where many families are gathering around a table of food sharing what they’re thankful for, Worsham said many of the families receiving food are just thankful for a meal. Generally, more food leaves the pantry during the beginning of the month, when SNAP (food stamp) services are still renewing for the new month.
Worsham said many students have stepped up and taken the reigns of the pantry and the experience has provided a lot of perspective to them about their community and its needs. She said many students enjoy working in the pantry because “it helps feed people” and “helps people not suffer from hunger.” On the student help, Worsham said Ethan Lindsey and his brother, Nathan, have made a huge impact on the types of food the pantry gives to those in need.
“Over the summer we collected a lot of money during Oil Field Days here in Healdton,” Lindsey said of his involvement in the project. “And we collected food items for the food pantry.
“We try to go every week to get food for the food pantry.”
Lindsey said he and his brother began collecting food as part of a 4H project and decided to continue to provide for the community once they realized the impact the food was directly making.
“Me and my brother saw the need in this community and we decided to help Mrs. Worsham,” he said.
Lindsey said one of the main food items they purchase for the pantry are tortillas and pancake mix. Worsham said tortillas are something the students receiving the food have enjoyed, because they are versatile and compliment the rest of the food they receive.
“It’s something easy, quick and it goes with a lot of things,” Worsham said of tortillas. “And we can’t get that at the regional food bank.”
As students at Healdton spend time at home with their families during the Thanksgiving holiday break, Worsham said she and her students are thankful for the opportunity to make someone else’s holiday complete with a meal.