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Pantry receives food to replace stocks
Published January 2, 2009
WEST COLUMBIA — Stocks depleted after Hurricane Ike weren’t easily replaced by those volunteering at The Love of Christ Food Pantry in West Columbia, but a bigger food gatherer stepped in on their behalf.
About 28,000 pounds of staples, such as rice, beans, cereal and canned goods were delivered from the Houston Food Bank in December to the pantry to reimburse them for food they dispersed to families during and after Hurricane Ike, pantry coordinator Richard Oliver said.
“This is going to be substantial,” Oliver said. “This will last quite a while for us.”
Oliver said the pantry might be stocked well enough now to last through the rest of 2009.
“There’s a nutrition plan I follow, certain times of the month we give out certain foods,” he said.
With the stocks he’s just received, Oliver said he could give out those staples more often than he usually does, or he could keep the current meal schedule and use the money he’ll save from not buying those staples to buy other produce.
During the week after the hurricane in mid-September, Oliver said he made two trips to the Houston Food Bank for supplies and the pantry distributed about 20,000 pounds of food.
“We were wiped out, totally,” he said.
Oliver said donations to the pantry and to the Houston Food Bank are incredible, and the money the pantry has been able to save by getting food from the food bank is astounding.
In 2008, Oliver said he paid about $9,800 for 185,798 pounds of food from the food bank. Had he gone to retail stores for the items, he would have spent about $318,500.
Jeanette Barber, 62, said she has volunteered at the pantry for about a year and is happy to help those in need.
“They always get good stuff,” Barber said Wednesday afternoon as she bagged meals. “Today, all we had was canned goods and dry goods, but when we have meat and produce, it’s more.”
Donations such as equipment, food and money come from sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, United Way and Dow Chemical Co., Oliver said, and without those donations, the pantry wouldn’t be able to exist.
He expects to add more clients in the new year to the more than 200 currently served by the pantry.
“This year you can imagine what it’ll be like with the economy,” Oliver said. “We’re fortunate to have these volunteers here because volunteers are hard to come by.”
Erin McKeon covers West of the Brazos communities for The Facts. Contact her at (979) 237-0152.
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