Those in need may be next door neighbors

American Red Cross and other agencies are responding to the Front Range flooding with their usual efficiency, providing food and shelter to those displaced by what some are calling a "500-year" flood resulting from receiving a year's worth of rain in a few days.

We certainly encourage readers to do all they can to help the charities that spring to action when natural or man-made disasters strike.

The needs are never-ending, of course, and not all of them are even as far away as the Rocky Mountains a few hours west of us.

For example, the McCook Pantry is perhaps our community's largest charity, and one whose services are becoming more and more in demand.

About 40 volunteers staff the Pantry, which is provided free space and utilities by St. Alban's Episcopal Church in the Canterbury House in the 500 block of West First. It's open every weekday, except holidays, from 1 to 4 p.m.

The number of people using the McCook Pantry has increased, on average, by about 650 people each year since 2005.

The January through July numbers show a 10.9 percent increase in the number of people using the Pantry, from 5,796 people last year to 6,427 people this year. At an average of 918 people per month, the total at the end of this year could be 11,017.

The numbers climbed from 5,500 in 2005 to 6,329 in 2008, 8,673 in 2010, 10,106 in 2011 and 10,625 in 2012.

Some 1,124 McCook and area families have been served by the Pantry at least one time during the last 12 months.

Keeping up with the demand is a big job, but you can help.

As part of the Pantry's major fall food drive this month, McCook Boy and Girl Scouts will hang grocery bags on McCook homes' front doors on Friday, Sept. 20, and pick them up on Saturday morning, Sept. 21. Residents who want to donate, but miss the Scouts, can bring their donations to the Pantry that Saturday, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

People using the Pantry are coming from McCook, Bartley, Beaver City, Benkelman, Cambridge, Culbertson, Curtis, Danbury, Hayes Center, Holbrook, Indianola, Lebanon, Maywood, Palisade, Stratton, Trenton, Wauneta and Wilsonville. A small number are from other cities and/or are transients.

Food items that can be donated to the Pantry include:

Canned fruit, peanut butter, soup or stew, pork and beans, vegetables such as corn, peas and beans, canned meat, dry pastas, rice, beans, cereal, flour, sugar, crackers, breakfast cereals, canned or dry milk, eggs, margarine, bread and rolls.

Monetary donations are used to purchase groceries from McCook and Wauneta groceries stores and from Mid-Nebraska Food Bank of Kearney.

It's ironic that those same majestic mountains that make Colorado such a special to live could combine with rain to create the conditions that are making life unbearable there now. It's also ironic that people could be hungry in Southwest Nebraska, in the middle of one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

Contributing to the McCook Pantry is one way to help.