WOODBINE — A visitor to the Woodbine Community Food Pantry Outreach Center spoke with a volunteer on a late afternoon earlier this month.
“I need food,” said the visitor, one of 118 adults and 59 children who have been served since last March, The Twiner-Herald reported.
Harrison County’s newest food pantry, located at 76 Fifth Street, has developed at a fast pace since the building was started in September 2016 and opened March 11.
The community has organized, constructed, stocked and opened the pantry in an effort, said food pantry board president Kathy Waite, “to meet the hunger needs of our community,” which includes all of the county as well as Woodbine.
“Woodbine takes great pride in meeting the needs of the community in order to promote our town as a vibrant, healthy place for families,” Waite said.
The pantry has served 77 households since opening, including many single-parent families, and 20 households in October alone.
Thanks to comprehensive support from the entire community — the school, organizations, churches and individuals — local residents described by one volunteer as “elderly or those on fixed incomes struggling to get by” don’t go hungry.
“People are very generous,” said Marianne Sullivan, vice president of the group, who serves along with treasurer Joette Cogdill, secretary Desta Clark and volunteer coordinator Connie Carmody.
Churches have played a major role so far. The Ministerial Association, in fact, introduced the idea for the pantry and didn’t limit its use to Woodbine.
“We put pantry news in the church bulletins, and boom,” Sullivan said.
Woodbine churches will be asked to donate cookies and candy for the Cookie Walk, held in conjunction with Main Street’s Bright Lights, Little City celebration on Dec. 17.
Private donations and a spaghetti dinner raised $23,000, Sullivan said. The food pantry board partnered with the Heartland Food Bank in Omaha and secured grants from the Harrison County Foundation for $5,000, which bought office furniture, a freezer, a refrigerator and other items; $3,000 from the Jimmy King Family Foundation provided more office supplies; and a $2,000 contribution from Farm Credit Services bought vouchers for meat, produce, dairy and bread from Foodland.
Those golf carts charging for transportation around town on Applefest? The $300 raised in fees for riding in the carts this past September was donated to the pantry.
Woodbine High School’s construction trades classes taught by Eric Moores framed the building and built the shelves just months ago. But the building process was a community affair. Those who donated and purchased supplies and services included the Woodbine City Council, Boyer Valley Heating and Cooling, Barnum Electric, Monahan Plumbing, Moores Plumbing, Jeff Johnsen, Jeff Powers, Denise’s Upholstering, Midwest Retrofoam, Hometown Hardware, Dave Esser, Rick Gau and Todd Heistand.
Open 3 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays, the pantry is staffed by about 30 volunteers who received training recommended by the Heartland Food Bank.
The staff maintains strict policies regarding usage of the pantry. Visitors are permitted to take food just once a month, and they sign in each time. There are no qualifications — “anyone can use the pantry,” Sullivan said — but guidelines are in place for what can be distributed.
As for the food, there is plenty of it: Two freezers filled with cube steaks, hamburger, hot dogs and, of course, pizza. The shelves are stocked with pasta, canned foods and the like. Soup and crackers are popular donated items in the winter.
The pantry has even surveyed users to see if there’s an interest in venison. But there’s always a need for more food of all kinds.
“We are able to provide not only canned and nonperishable foods but also produce, dairy, eggs, bread and meat items as well as some personal care item products,” Waite said.
Because recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps, can’t buy laundry soap or paper products, the pantry volunteers are known to make soap themselves in 5-gallon buckets for distribution, and they accept paper towels and toilet paper.
Sullivan said the pantry buys food at Heartland at discounted prices, and it uses a voucher system coordinated with Foodland for such food as meats and poultry. The vouchers don’t expire.
Last week’s late-afternoon visitor won’t get very far preparing Thanksgiving dinner on the $15 of food stamps she gets per month.
“Could you use potatoes?” the pantry volunteer asked the visitor.
The potatoes were donated from a local garden.
“Real ones?”
“Real ones.”
“Yes!”
The first time she came to the pantry, the visitor left with a children’s book, too. Teachers from the school donate books for those who need food.
“This place is totally a blessing,” the visitor said as she left with Thanksgiving dinner in her bags, and the volunteers helped her out to the car.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the pantry can contact Sullivan at 712-647-3057 or Carmody at 712-592-3280.
