Commission hears mobile food pantry presentation - Dothan Eagle

Commission hears mobile food pantry presentation - Dothan Eagle

As September is Hunger Action Month in the state of Alabama, the Coffee County Commission heard a presentation regarding the Coffee County Community Church Mobile Food Pantry during its regularly scheduled meeting Monday morning.

Leda Green, who works with senior citizens in New Brockton, gave the presentation, informing the commission about the mobile food pantry and its progress.

“We’ve started what’s called a mobile food pantry through the Wiregrass Community Food Bank,” Green explained. “What we did was go out and recruit churches in the area to come together and establish a donation where they could get this money for a maintenance fee for the Wiregrass Area Food Bank. Local churches in the area -- there are already seven of them that have joined our mission, and they are donating between $500 and $600 at this moment for us to purchase this food from Wiregrass Food Bank. We’ll have a mobile food pantry, which you all voted on for us to have over at the Farm Center.”

According to Green, the mission of the mobile pantry is to feed as many families as possible in the Coffee County area once a month.

“We’ll serve 450 families in the surrounding area in our starting month, and we’re hoping to increase that amount,” said Green. “In the US there are 31 million people on the edge of hunger right now. There are approximately 1 in 4 families with children that are on the poverty level and on the edge of hunger in Alabama alone, so we’re hoping to reach out to these less fortunate individuals. They will come on their vehicle and they will drive through and pick up their stuff.”

There is no age limit on receiving food from the mobile pantry, and the poverty level for the income is below $1,300 a month, said Green. The first date for food distribution is Oct. 30; county residents in need can sign up for the program on Oct. 4, 5, and 6 at the New Brockton Senior Center and the Coffee County Complex. On Oct. 4 and 5, registration will be held from 12 -- 4 p.m.; on Oct. 6, it will take place from 10 -- 2 p.m.

More information can be obtained by calling 334-806-5955.

Other business:

* The commission voted to let bids for repairs to one of the D6 dozers used for environmental services.

* The commission voted to approve the renewal of contracts with SARCOA for the operation of county senior centers.

* A bid for pre-event debris removal was awarded to D&J Enterprises in the amount of $629,065.

* A bid for the annual placement of plant mix was awarded to Wiregrass Construction Company in the amount of $721,025.

* EMA Director James Brown informed the commission that a national test of the Integrated Public Alert Warning System, or IPAWS, will be conducted in the area at 1:18 p.m. on Oct. 3. Residents will receive the notification on their cell phones, which will probably make a “really loud noise that they’ve never heard before,” according to Brown. No action will need to be taken when the alert is given.