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Grant Cash to Help Fill Pantry's Cupboards: Proposed Facility Seeks More Funds

Posted on: Sunday, 25 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Jc Reindl, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Jun. 25--The shelves of a proposed North Toledo food pantry that would open this fall would be stocked with help from a $12,500 grant from the Toledo Community Foundation, project organizers said.

The proposed pantry would be inside the James C. Caldwell Community Center and contain a variety of food for needy individuals and families. It would serve those with incomes at twice the poverty level or less.

A family of four earning $20,000 a year or less is considered living in poverty, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The measure is $16,600 for a family of three, and $13,200 for a family of two.

The foundation's grant will be used to buy some of the pantry's food. The Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank -- a nonprofit organization that solicits, transports, and distributes groceries to a network of agencies -- would buy the rest.

The pantry still needs grant money from other sources to open, and those grants are pending. However, organizers said they are confident money will become available.

"I'm almost 100 percent sure that will fall into place," said James M. Caldwell, president and CEO of Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank, and son of James. C. Caldwell, the community center's former director for whom it is named.

The new pantry is a joint venture between the food bank and community center.

While the neighborhood around Caldwell has three food pantries, those facilities open to the public on more of a limited basis, said Bernice Toney, an agency relations specialist for the food bank. The new pantry would be open most days of the week.

"Some of those programs operate just once a month," Ms. Toney said. "So if something should happen and [income-eligible recipients] need assistance that day, then [the proposed pantry] would be open and available for them."

The pantry would serve some of Toledo's poorest residents.

Forty-two percent of residents around the Caldwell Center have been reported as living at or below the poverty level, she said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Blade

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