Its primary mission is educating the leaders of tomorrow — but, on the fourth Tuesday of each month, Kreft Primary School opens its doors to everyone and sets up a temporary food pantry that is open from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria.
Food is trucked in from Food Bank for the Heartland, and school staff members and volunteers lay it out on a string of tables around the room, said Skyler Avila, co-coordinator of the pantry with Maggie Miller. Carts and wagons are available to help visitors move their groceries.
Based on expected attendance, the food bank sets limits on how many of each item families can take, Avila said. And the hundreds of pounds of food get cleared out.
“We’ve been having about 170 families for the past few months,” Miller said.
Most of the food is shelf-stable, Miller said.
“Each month, there’s different fresh produce, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, apples,” she said. “Sometimes there’s dairy products.”
And there are always baked goods, from various kinds of bread to cookies, cakes, rolls and pastries.
Clients are asked to give their zip code and the number of people in their household — and that’s it. They don’t have to fill out a lot of paperwork and provide proof of income.
The pantry is “pretty helpful,” said Candi Bybe, who has six mouths to feed at home.
Pamela Henderson also finds it helpful — especially toward the end of the month. Sometimes she can get fresh fruit or other things she might not buy.
“Fresh fruits are expensive,” she said.
Henderson also likes the people who work at the pantry, she said.
“They’re real nice about it,” she said. “They’ll help you get your things to the car.”
Recently, the pantry received a $1,710 grant from Farm Credit Services of America — not for food, but for more things to transport food with, Avila said.
“We’ve always been short on carts and wagons,” she said.
The pantry was able to buy seven wagons and nine carts with the money, as well as utility knives, bags and other supplies.
Farm Credit Services awards grants of up to $2,000 each quarter through its Working Here Fund Grant Program, which was started in April 2012, said Teresa Mardesen, community relations manager for Farm Credit Services in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.
“Our grants are focused on hunger, ag education and young and beginning producer programs,” she said.
