KEARNEY — The brand new Mobile Food Pantry didn’t open until noon July 18, but people began lining up at 10:30 a.m. outside the Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska’s Food Bank at 114 E. 11th St., and they kept coming.
After doors opened, they still kept coming. The pantry stayed open until 4 p.m., one hour past its scheduled closing of 3 p.m., so everyone could be served.
“It’s a very humbling experience to see the people line up,” Kyla Martin, development director at the Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska and program coordinator, said. It’s also proof that the Mobile Food Pantry is very much needed here.
The program, which began in July, calls for the Community Action Food Bank’s refrigerated truck to visit seven communities in Buffalo County over 14 weeks. The truck takes healthy produce, canned goods and more to Amherst, Elm Creek, Gibbon, Kearney, Pleasanton, Ravenna and Shelton. The truck makes one two-hour visit at each site roughly every three months, usually on Thursdays. Fourteen weeks later, the cycle begins again.
The pantries are set up for roughly two hours in large public spaces like the fire halls in Amherst and Pleasanton, the school in Elm Creek and the public works building in Ravenna. The pantry offers fresh produce, frozen meat, canned goods, dry goods and personal care items Those who come provide the size and ages of their family “so we know who’s accessing this,” Martin said.
Assisting with the distribution are volunteers from athletic teams, schools, 4-H groups and churches. In Ravenna on Sept. 14, 22 students and 10 adults helped distribute food. In Elm Creek on Aug. 3, there were 27 volunteers. In Pleasanton on Aug. 31, 12 students and eight adults helped out. On it goes.
Martin uses the term “food insecurity” to describe why the pantries are needed. Anyone can come; no questions are asked, but crowds are primarily young families and people over 60. “There is no charge. We assist families that need it, and we make sure all that extra food doesn’t go to waste,” Martin said.
The program is done in partnership with Feeding America – Food Bank for the Heartland, with funding support from the Walmart Foundation, the Community Services Block Grant, and Kearney Area Community Foundation.
The cycle begins when the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha delivers fresh produce to Kearney by truck. It brings potatoes, watermelon, carrots, apples, cabbage and onions. The Community Action Food Bank employees and volunteers transfer it to a refrigerated Community Action Food Bank truck.
Then, they add frozen meat, canned goods, dry goods and personal care items such as diapers, paper towels and toilet paper picked up from Walmart, HyVee, Target and Starbuck’s. Those pick-ups are done three times a week as part of the Community Action Food Bank Food Rescue Program. Then the truck makes its rounds.
The numbers prove the need. At the pantry’s first stop in Kearney July 18, food was provided to 437 individuals in 158 households. They received 3,589 pounds of produce and 1,264 pounds of donated items.
When the Mobile Food Pantry went to Elm Creek on Aug. 3, it served 287 people in 89 households in 11 towns. In Pleasanton on Aug. 31, it served 170 people from 60 families in 13 area towns. In Ravenna Sept. 14, figures showed that 5,300 pounds of food went to 131 households.
Returning to Kearney Oct. 12, the Mobile Food Pantry assisted people from 208 households, or 689 individuals. “We fed about 198 households during the two hours and we helped about 10 families afterwards. Our goal was 100 families, and we did it,” Martin said. “It was a blowout.”
One recipient said, “For most of the last two years, I have been unable to get out, so having staples on hand is a big help. I am eternally grateful for the assistance you have provided during this period of ill health and isolation.”
Despite this area’s rosy economic picture currently, people are still hungry. According to the 2016 Community Action of Nebraska State and Regional Report, one in three people reported issues with affordable utilities, food and clothing. “Food deserts” continue to be a pressing need in our rural areas where there are few to no local grocery stores for a considerable distance,” Martin said.
Despite Kearney’s bustling job market, hungry people remain. During the food pantry’s stop Oct. 12, it provided food for 289 children and young people under age 18; 162 adults between the ages of 19 and 34; 160 adults between 35 and 64, and 87 people over age 65.
Some 8,268 pounds of food was brought in from the Food Bank for the Heartland, including “cabbage bigger than watermelons,” Martin said. That same day, the Community Action Food Bank Food Rescue Program contributed 4,064 pounds of food.
The schedule for the remainder of 2017 includes Elm Creek Nov. 16, Amherst Dec. 1 and Pleasanton on Dec. 15. Locations will be announced.
“This improved access to free, healthy produce will improve the overall culture of health,” Martin said. “It will address negative health outcomes such as obesity and diabetes at the core by providing healthy food to those who have not otherwise have access or the means to afford healthy food.”
Best of all, no one is turned away. Ever.
