DES MOINES, Iowa -- DMARC mobile food pantry brings free healthy food options directly to people in the community. Now, every third and fourth Monday of the month you can find the mobile pantry in the Oakridge Neighborhood in Des Moines.
The Oakridge Neighborhood CEO Teree Caldwell-Johnson said the neighborhood has 300 units of section 8 low-income housing and 39 units of market rate senior housing and 1,200 individuals.
Caldwell-Johnson said out of the 1,200 residents, 60 percent are children ages zero to 14, “Providing support for them and also the adults that live in our neighborhood. Provides a great opportunity for us to not only make sure that they’re happy and healthy but they have nourishment and food to really sustain themselves, we’re getting ready for school to start so I can think of no better way for us to kick off the school year than making sure that our families here in the neighborhood have access to healthy food.”
Once every calendar month, families can go through the mobile food pantry and choose food from a number of categories. There is also a shelf outside of the pantry of “anytime items.” Residents can receive those food items anytime, even if they have gone through the pantry the week before.
Caldwell-Johnson said the mobile pantry comes at an opportune time, “We think that this will enable individuals to not only add to the food they already have in their homes but often times during the end of the month which is when we have the food pantry food needs to be supplemented so we think this will be a great win-win not only for the residents but also for the community.”
Residents and community members can find the DMARC mobile food pantry in the Oakridge Neighborhood near the basketball courts every third and fourth Monday of the month from 12 P.M. to 2 P.M.
