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Collection drives held local food pantries

Local food panties have benefited from recent community collection drives but they are still needing help.

Jim Peterson, a volunteer for the Elvins Food Pantry, said they have picked up the canned goods and the dry products that the mail carriers collected earlier this month during their annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

“We got a whole van – ceiling to floor – full and a pickup load (of food),” he said. “That helped a lot.”

They also received a large number of items from the Girl Scouts’ April Showers personal care items drive earlier last month. He said they received more than last year because some of the other pantries decided not take part.

“We want to take care of their personal needs, as well as food,” Peterson said.

While Elvins does have plenty of canned goods and personal care items for now, there are two things the pantry still needs – meat and money.

“We can always use meat,” he said. “We can never get enough meat.”

He said they could also use monetary donations because they are fixing up their new building on Main Street in Park Hills to meet health department requirements. They expect to move into the new building within a few weeks.

He said the repairs have cost more than they expected. He said they also are needing a walk-in cooler. The old walk-in cooler was built into the building so it will have to stay.

At the Farmington Ministerial Alliance, shelves aren’t as full as Pat Momot would like them to be. While the recent food drives have helped a lot, they are receiving fewer commodities from the government.

“The food drives are helping to supplement the lack of commodities coming in,” she said. “(The commodities) are falling off to nearly nothing.”

While the pantry was used to receiving hundreds of cases of commodities, Momot said they are currently receiving 20 to 30 cases – which isn’t enough to get through a month.

She said meats are a precious commodity.

Because of the cuts, they have stopped giving out beef. They can only afford to give chicken.

“We have lots of green beans and corn but that doesn’t feed an empty stomach very well,” she said.

She said they could use cereals, rice, and macaroni and cheese.

“We’re very appreciative of what we get,” Momot said.

Kathy Neiner of the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Farmington, said they received a lot of food from the mail carrier food drive.

In addition, she estimates they received about a year’s worth of personal care items from the Girl Scouts drive.

But Neiner also commented that they are receiving less in commodities.

“We’re not getting any canned fruits and hardly any canned goods,” she said.

Neiner said they are low on monetary donations.

Neiner said as of Tuesday, they will unable to help individuals with rent, utility payments, and medicines because they currently don’t have any money to do that this summer.

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