Meijer presents more than $11K to Zion Food Pantry - Sentinel-Standard

Meijer presents more than $11K to Zion Food Pantry - Sentinel-Standard

Karen Bota

IONIA — Local Meijer Store Manager Scott Flanagan paid a visit to the Zion Community Food Pantry Tuesday with gifts in hand: $11,260 in Meijer gift cards to be precise. That’s money that will be spent to stock pantry shelves to feed the nearly 200 people a week who come by for food.

The funds are from Meijer’s “Simply Give” promotion, which runs four times each year. Meijer matches, dollar for dollar, what the community donates at Meijer to the food pantry. In each cycle, there’s a weekend that is double-matched, so a $10 donation turns into $30, according to Flanagan.

“Meijer partners with food pantries in hundreds of communities to help fight hunger,” Flanagan said.

“But we can’t do it without the community,” Deb Hall, food pantry director, added. “And we are extremely grateful for the community’s help.”

“And you guys do a phenomenal job running it,” Flanagan said.

The food pantry receives money from every one of the four “Simply Give” cycles. The lowest cycle netted the pantry $7,000, Hall said. “But one year it was $33,920.”

The money is put to good use. On Tuesday afternoon the shelves were “nice and full,” Flanagan noted. Hall told him she had just picked up an order earlier in the day. They’ll be packing boxes for Wednesday distribution, with each box intended to feed three to four people. 

“Each box has almost $40 (worth of food items), so when we give out 50 to 60 boxes each week, it means the community and Meijer helped,” said Elwin Hall, who volunteers in the food pantry. “We need both.”

Last year the food pantry and the Zion Soup Kitchen spent $41,678 in “Simply Give” dollars, Deb Hall said, serving 7,762 individuals in the food pantry and providing 1,670 meals in the soup kitchen. Another 2,704 individuals were served by Zion’s mobile pantry, in partnership with Feeding America.

Just because Meijer and the community give money to the food pantry through “Simply Give” doesn’t mean food donations from the community aren’t needed. Any donation of non-perishable food items are welcomed.

“Any of it helps — it all helps,” Deb Hall. “Whatever they bring, that’s less I have to buy.”

Some groups collect and donate toiletries, which is useful, because the only toiletry she buys is toilet paper.

“If they don’t donate it, I don’t have it,” Deb Hall said. “Even the ‘odd’ things — dressings, plastic wrap — it all gets put out.” 

No matter what is donated, Deb and Elwin Hall and the other volunteers will find a way to put it to good use, said Flanagan.

“Thank you, guys, for your diligent work at fighting hunger,” he said.