Food pantry seeks increase in county funding - Maryville Daily Forum

Food pantry seeks increase in county funding - Maryville Daily Forum

As 2016 draws to a close, area charities and non-profits are queuing up at the Nodaway County Administration Center with requests for county dollars during the new year.

Entities appearing recently before the County Commission in an effort to secure funding for 2017 included the Nodaway County Ministry Center, which is asking that the three-member governing board increase the food panty’s grant from $2,500 in each of the last two years to $5,000.

Ministry Center board members Merlin Atkins and the Rev. Jonathan Mitchell of the First Presbyterian Church of Maryville stated that the growing volume of families countywide assisted by the pantry justifies an increased share of the commission’s limited discretionary resources.

Atkins said the center currently serves an average of 215 families a month and spends about $50,000 a year for groceries, mostly purchased from the Second Harvest food bank in St. Joseph.

Other foodstuffs distributed by the pantry include about 50,000 pounds worth of groceries a year donated by individuals, churches, service clubs, schools, and other organizations and approximately 6,000 pounds in U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities each month.

But donations and commodities, Atkins said, make up only a fraction of the 365,000 pounds of food — including meat, poultry, fruits, vegetable, cheese, cereal, bread, canned goods, boxed meals, and condiments — distributed over a 12-month period.

In addition to operating its all-volunteer grocery store-like pantry, located at 971 S. Main St., three days a week, the Ministry Center also administers a number of food insecurity programs targeting children, the elderly, and those with handicaps.

These include the summer Brown Bag lunch initiative, which provides easily prepared meals to more than 500 young people from lower-income families each summer when school cafeterias are closed.

Another effort established a few years ago is Backpack Buddies, which distributes similar meal parcels to schoolchildren for consumption on weekends.

According to Ministry Center figures, more than 30,000 Backpack Buddy meals were provided to eligible youngsters in fiscal 2015.

The pantry also participates in USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides commodity foodstuffs to income-eligible seniors and Nodaway residents with handicaps.

Approximately 500 CSFP food boxes are home-delivered each year, Atkins said.

Distributed monthly, these parcels contain 40 pounds of food and are available to families with incomes totaling up to 125 percent above the federal poverty threshold. Seniors and people with handicaps qualify for CSFP assistance if their incomes are within 150 percent of the official poverty standard.

Asked how the Ministry Center compares with other pantry operations in rural Missouri, Mitchell said he believes the pantry is one of the most effective in the state, due largely to widespread community support from individuals, civic and church groups, and the local business community.

Local food retailers, he said, frequently donate fruits, vegetables, and other perishable goods that are either overstocked or in danger of spoiling.

Because they lack community partners, Mitchell said, some pantries must limit aid for food-insecure families and individuals to donated canned goods and government commodities.

Atkins and Mitchell said the Ministry Center has an annual budget of just over $150,000 and generally comes within a few hundred dollars of breaking even. In addition to groceries for the pantry proper, other significant expenses include $44,000 for Backpack Buddies, $33,000 for energy assistance to low-income families, around $10,000 for facility maintenance and insurance, $2,700 for supplies, and $10,300 for utilities.

As for income, in 2015 the pantry received $27,000 in church donations, $45,000 from the Gladys Rickard Charitable Trust, nearly $70,000 in individual donations, and $10,000 from United Way of Nodaway County.