Our OP Rotary Club has donated 200 pounds of food plus $120 of monetary donations, split between Catholic Charities Food Pantry and ReNewed Hope Food Pantry. Both were very grateful for our donations and said they were much needed since the demand for food assistance has risen with higher grocery costs, and reduced deliveries from Harvesters. I delivered this weeks’ food collections to the Renewed Hope Food pantry on Tuesday morning and was impressed with their food distribution that day. There were about 100 cars lined up for grocery pick-up at 8:30AM, and Karen Whitson – Director told me they would serve around 300 families that day, all with volunteers. ReNewed Hope is open for weekly food pick-up days on Tuesday mornings, with walk in service on two Sundays each month, and a food bus that travels to low-income areas in the metro 3 days a week. Karen said the shelf stable items we delivered such as pasta, dried beans, rice, mac & cheese, canned soup fruit & pasta sauce, peanut butter, etc. is always needed for the Food Pantry bus, since they don’t receive those types of food items from Harvesters.
At Monday’s meeting, our Rotary Club decided to extend the March food drive through the Rotary meeting on April 8 to give everyone a chance to donate food items. If you pick up some of the items above between now and April 8, bring it to the meeting. You are helping people in a tight spot in our community. Thanks for all you do!