Mobile Pantry serves 751 people, 270 families

Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Eleven-year-old Aubrey Sause of Omaha came with her mother, Michelle Sause, who is the assistance director of Network Relations for Food Bank for the Heartland. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

McCOOK, Neb. -- The need for help with the cost of living appeared very evident to those who coordinated the one-day two-hour Mobile Pantry in McCook Saturday, June 25.

"We served 270 families -- 751 people," said coordinator JoLyn Hare. JoLyn is a board member of the Hitchcock County Pantry which has helped plan Food Bank for the Heartland Mobile Pantry events in Hitchcock and Hayes counties and now in Red Willow County, since late 2015.

"It's amazing," said co-coordinator Barb Ostrum, another Hitchcock County Pantry board member. "This truly shows there is such a need. We served young families, young singles, the elderly. There seem to be more and more children living in poverty."

Caitlyn Ebert, 8, of Bartley was one of the volunteers for the Food Bank for the Heartland Mobile Pantry in McCook on Saturday. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

The Mobile Pantry in McCook distributed 15,000 pounds of food, which, JoLyn said, averaged about 20 pounds per person. She said that, unfortunately, some families were not able to take home quite as much food and 10 to 15 families were turned away without any, because the need turned out to be greater than the supply.

The need may be greater in the summer than any other time of the year, Barb said, when children are not in school and are not eating breakfast and/or lunch at the cafeteria.

Responsible people on strict budgets will pay their bills first, she said, and use what's left for a trip to the grocery store. Between higher food bills and higher electrical bills (for air conditioning), many paychecks just don't stretch to cover all the summer expenses.

Brianna Strecker, 8, helps bag food while volunteering at the mobile pantry Saturday. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

JoLyn and Barb praised the volunteers Saturday morning who helped unload the Food Bank truck, stocked food on the tables for the shoppers and helped with the distribution. They cited especially the young teen boys who served as "box boys" and helped shoppers carry heavy boxes.

"We could not have done any of our Mobile Pantries without our volunteers," Barb said. JoLyn said there were 49 volunteers at the McCook Mobile Pantry.

The number of families helped at the McCook Mobile Pantry were, by county: Red Willow -- 177; Hitchcock -- 39; Dundy -- 22; Furnas -- 16; Hayes -- 10; Frontier -- 3; Phelps -- 2; and Chase -- 1.

Mobile Pantries the remainder of the year will follow this schedule:

* Saturday, July 23, Hitchcock County, Palisade school gym, 10 a.m. until noon, 8,000 pounds.

* Saturday, Aug. 13, Dundy County, Benkelman, location to be determined, 10 a.m. until noon MT, 6,000 pounds.

* Saturday, Oct. 8, Hitchcock County, Stratton, location to be announced, 10 a.m. until noon, 7,000 pounds.

* Saturday, Nov. 19, McCook/Red Willow County, (tentative date; location to be announced).

* Saturday, Dec. 10, Hitchcock County, Culbertson, location to be announced, 10 a.m. until noon, 8,000 pounds.

Coordinators stress emphatically that shoppers MUST bring their own boxes and bags because boxes ARE NOT available at the site. Laundry baskets, little red wagons and small, collapsible wheeled shopping carts work well. However, if the wheels aren't clean on the carts or wagons, do not bring them. It's rude to drag dirt and mud across the floors of the sponsoring site.

Shoppers, especially the elderly or handicapped, are encouraged not to shop alone, as there is a lot of food available and boxes can get heavy, according to Hare and Ostrum.

Shoppers are also asked not to wait until the last minute because each two-hour distribution is on a first-come, first-served basis. When the food is gone, it's gone.

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