• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Food Service Growing in Ohio County: Pantry Stations Coming to Rockport, Fordsville

Posted on: Sunday, 5 March 2006, 13:01 CST

By Adrienne Steinfeldt, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Mar. 5--HARTFORD -- After serving food to 4,400 families in its first year, the Ohio County food pantry is expanding to outlying areas of the county this month in an effort to reach people with limited transportation.

The new "delivery stations" should be in Fordsville and Rockport by the end of the month, said food pantry director Gary Hines.

The Rockport delivery station will be set up at Rockport Baptist Church; the Fordsville location has yet to be determined.

"We're trying to reach out into the county," Hines said. "There are a lot of elderly people that need help that either don't know about it or don't have access to it."

The pantry, which opened in March 2005, already has distributed more than 150,000 pounds of food, and the influx of families short on grocery money isn't expected to slow down soon, Hines said.

"I expect it will increase," he said, especially with the expanded distribution. Eventually, the goal is to bring food distribution points to Dundee and Centertown.

"If we can get somebody to step forth and a church to volunteer, we'll start feeding in those areas too," Hines said.

Young mothers, migrant families, seniors and the unemployed are heading to the pantry in the Render Education Center at the old Wayland School in Hartford.

The pantry is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Up to 87 people have come to the pantry in a single day to sign up for a package of groceries, hygienic supplies and household goods.

"Sometimes they'll be lined up all the way down the hall," Hines said.

Volunteers staff the pantry, which is stocked with federal commodities, private donations and America's Second Harvest shipments.

Any nonprofit organization can qualify to set up a food pantry and receive the twice-monthly shipments of food, said Milissa French with Second Harvest. Faith-based organizations are automatically eligible without having to file for nonprofit status.

In Ohio County, it's been a communitywide effort to get the food pantry up and running.

Churches that used to buy groceries for needy families now send the money, and the families, to the pantry.

That saves money, because the pantry can stretch $100 a lot further. Through Second Harvest, the pantry buys its food for only 14 cents a pound.

Businesses are donating food items, Ohio County Public Schools are allowing the pantry to use its space, and the county road department is transporting a shipment of food once a month.

All the effort is doing some good, say community volunteers who help put together the packages for families several days a week.

"It really helps," said volunteer Sandra Wimmer of Hartford. Without it, clients "would go hungry. It's an absolute fact."

For Information

For information on setting up a food pantry, call America's Second Harvest at (270) 769-5060. To help in Ohio County, call Gary Hines at 256-5419.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:RBK,

Source: Messenger-Inquirer

More News in this Category