HUNTINGTON — A Huntington food bank has been "growing like crazy," according to staff, and needs more volunteers to keep up with the increase in demand.
The operation is run out of Huntington First Baptist Church on North Main Street, and provides a monthly food pantry and a weekly program to feed underprivileged children through the help of local schools.
Steven Alford/The Lufkin Daily News |
Volunteers with the Huntington Food Program, pictured left to right from the bottom: Leah Martin, director; Sue McKee, co-director; and Tommie Jan Lowery; back row: Crickett Moree; Dorothy Penland; Gary Feldpausch; Sunny Feldpausch; Mary Hubbard; Jennifer Groce; Monica Lambert; and Bonnie Martin.
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"We've been averaging about two new children to our program each week," said Leah Martin, director of the Huntington Food Program. "The demand on our volunteers has also increased and we need all the help we can get."
The school feeding program, which currently helps feed 44 Huntington children, finds kids who don't get enough to eat on the weekends when they go home. Children are recommended to the food pantry group by school officials who notice a need.
Volunteers gather each Wednesday night to bag food for the student program, currently totaling 168 bags a month.
"Many of the children come home and there's nothing to eat for the whole weekend until they come back to school," Martin said. "So we try and give them things they can make easily, like a meal in a can."
The food pantry sends kids home each weekend with pop-top cans of meats, cereal, snacks, fruit cups and Pop-Tarts for breakfast — things they can prepare easily and readily, she said. Some of the children may not have running water or electricity to prepare a proper meal, she said.
"There's a huge need in this community," said Sue McKee, co-director of the Huntington Food Program. "We see pictures of starving children in Third World countries and sometimes we fail to see the need in our own backyard."
The Huntington First Baptist Church also operates its monthly "client choice" food bank on the second Thursday of each month. Unlike most food banks which prepare boxes of food, the "client choice" method lets people choose exactly what they want to eat and take only what they need.
"We see it as being less wasteful because people can come and get exactly what they need," Martin said. "Honestly, I'm surprised all food pantries don't operate like that. It cuts down on a lot of waste."
The head count for October was more than 500 people who were fed by the food pantry, 100 more than in September. The program has been running at the church for five months, and staff say they want to branch out to include more people.
"We want this to be an inter-faith mission and a community mission," McKee said.
While staff work to keep Huntington's hungry fed, the number of people referred to the food pantry grows.
"We need volunteers or even donations from people," Martin said. "We're trying to go around and get help from local businesses and other churches, because if we all pitch in we can help feed people who need it right here."
The food program works in part with the East Texas Food Bank and Feeding America, both from Tyler.
For more information about the Huntington food pantry, or to get involved, contact Martin at (936) 635-0385 or send donations to the pantry at P.O. Box 1357, Huntington, Texas 75949.
Visit the Huntington Food Program's Web site at huntingtonfbc.org.
