HELPING THE HUNGRY Thanksgiving ramps up efforts of local food pantries
By BY WAYNE BRYAN Staff Writer
This article was published November 22, 2009 at 4:28 a.m.
TRI-LAKES AREA — Last week L.V. Johnson of Sheridan spent two days on the road to Little Rock and back again and talked on his cell phone about hunger in his community.
“There are more people out there hurting than you realize,” said Johnson, who runs the Imma nuel Baptist Church Food Pantry in Grant County. “We are picking up 10 to 15 new families coming in every month, and it is getting worse with the timber business in trouble and more people out of work.”
During those trips Smith picked up around 12,000 pounds of food from the Arkansas Food Bank and another ton from the Rice Depot.Along with those items, Smith said the church’s food bank received 165 baking hens from a local business and meat from four deer contributed by hunters and processed free by a packing house.
The food was being readied to give out at the church on Holly Street in Sheridan on Saturday, where they expected to hand out boxes of food to up to 165 families for Thanksgiving and early December.
Since the first Thanksgiving feast, the holiday celebrates the security of community and the blessings of abundance that America provides its people.
Yet almost one out of six Arkansans do not share in those blessings, but dedicated members of their community are reachingout to help.
A report issued Monday by the U. S. Department of Agriculture said that 15.9 percent of Arkansas residents are unsure of when or from where their next meal will come. The number is even higher among children with almost one child in four struggling with being hungry.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also attributed the worsening situation to rising unemployment in this country during a statement to a Congressional committee. He added that since these statistics were from 2008 reports, the numbers today could be much higher.
Charles Hill and his wife, Judy, make food available to those in need from a pantry at the Village United Pentecostal Church, whereHill is the pastor.
“We are open any time anybody needs anything,” Hill said. “We’re a small country church in a poorer area of Garland County, and we are seeing an increase in the number of families calling us.”
Hill is a former member of the Arkansas Food Bank’s board of directors, and his church is part of the food bank’s network.
It is startling how quickly a family can face hunger after losing a job, he said.
“One family we see has nine children and he is a roofer,” Hill said. “The rains have kept him out of work a lot, and you can get pretty far behind very quickly.”
The Hills said they regularlyserve 50 families a month, which equates to 200 to 250 people. The church’s food pantry doesn’t require that clients fill out forms to receive food.
“Some people are afraid of paperwork, and we deliver a lot of the food we give out so we can come to the homes and see the need,” Hill said.
He said he will always remember coming to one home where the mother opened the refrigerator to place the food Hill had brought; there was one bowl of stir-fry in the fridge. That would have had to last her and her daughter for the rest of the week without the delivery.
“The little girl hugged my neck and was crying, saying, ‘Mama, we can eat,”” he said. “This was in Garland Country, USA, notsome third-world country.”
Sara Brown, who runs the food pantry for Zion Lutheran Church in Avilla, said people would be surprised to see that their clients are not always the chronically poor.
“We are seeing more middle-class people,” Brown said. “It is hard for them, because they have never needed anything like this before, but with the economy the way it is, the need is there.”
Like other food pantries, the church receives food from the Arkansas Food Bank, the Rice Depot and venison donated by hunters through the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. They have already received a shipment of 832 pounds, and another of more than 800 pounds is expected.
Zion Lutheran Church opens its pantry for an hour every Monday evening and lets its clients select from what is in stock.
“They sign in and we give them a grocery list and they pick what they want and what they like,” Brown said.
The amount they get depends on the size of their family.
The church food pantry is planning a Holiday Meal on Saturday, Dec. 5, for up to 200 people. Along with a hot holiday meal, the clients will be able to select wrapped toys for their children and the children will have an opportunity to pick out presents for the adults.
Brown said one family who used to receive food from the pantry now contributes food each month.
Those wishing to support these food pantries can contact the Immanuel Baptist Church in Sheridan at (870) 942-4891. The Village Untied Pentecostal Church Food Pantry in Garland County at (501) 545-3561 and Zion Lutheran Church in Avilla at (501) 316-1100.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 139 on 11/22/2009
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