The Benton County Food Pantry is currently experiencing food shortages according to Susan Sullivan, president of the BCFP Board.
“Due to food supply challenges at the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri, the Benton County Food Pantry has not been receiving our normal allocation of food supplies. The Food Pantry has purchased additional food utilizing grant funds or funds that have been donated, however, this is not allowing us to meet the food demands for the number of Benton County residents we serve. This has forced us to reevaluate our hours of operation. As of May 1, the Benton County Food Pantry will be open on Monday and Wednesday from 8 am to 12 pm,” said Sullivan.
The Food Bank works with more than 145 partner agencies across a 32-county service area to provide food assistance to any person who needs it. These partner agencies include local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, senior centers and more. Functioning like a distribution center, The Food Bank provides these partners with food at no cost so they can distribute it to their communities.
The role of The Food Bank is often misunderstood, and few realize the scope of its impact. Instead of working as a single entity, The Food Bank uses bulk-purchasing power, community partnerships, and its association with Feeding America to obtain an average of 30 million pounds of food a year. That food is distributed through The Food Bank’s network of partner agencies, reaching as many as 100,000 Missourians on a monthly basis. Last year, the equivalent of 24 million meals were provided by The Food Bank through its partner agencies.
“We receive food shipments from the Northeast Central Food Bank once and week and lately the amount of food we receive is not enough for the demand,” said Sullivan.
Sullivan explained that while the people of Benton County have been generous in their help with donations and food, the demand for food is greater than what the BCFP receives.
“We are serving 80 to 100 people a day and we are continually having more people sign up,” said Sullivan. “The majority of the people who come to the BCFP are senior citizens and many of them are supporting grandchildren as well.”
In order to receive food, recipients must have proof of residency in Benton County and a photo ID. Recipients can receive food once a month.
“We have the most people on the first of the month since that is when they are eligible to pick up food again,” said BCFP manager Jeannie Arnold.
According to Sullivan, Walmart has been a good supporter of BCFP by donating fruit and vegetables.
“We appreciate the donations from Walmart,” said Sullivan. “Our volunteers go through all the produce and anything that isn’t good is picked up by local farmers to feed to chickens or pigs so nothing goes to waste.”
In addition to donations from Walmart, the BCFP also receives deer meat from the Share the Harvest program from Jackman’s Processing during deer season as well as canned goods from many local churches and community groups. The Leathernecks recently presented a check for $2,500 to the BCFP to help them purchase food.
“We also do our best to use all donations to buy food locally,” said Sullivan. “We recently purchased $6,000 worth of meat from G & W Foods. All donations are used to help those right here in Benton County.”
All of the people who work at the BCFP are volunteers including Sullivan and Arnold. The truck drivers who go to Columbia once a week to pick up food are volunteers as well as the workers inside the building. The expenses the BCFP incurs includes rent on the building, diesel for the truck, electricity and insurance.
“We wouldn’t be able to keep our doors open without the volunteers,” said Sullivan.
The BCFP truck that picks up food in Columbia once a week also picks up the Buddy Packs for school children in Benton County as well as senior citizen food boxes and veteran’s boxes.
“Anyone in Benton County over 65 years of age can apply for a senior citizen food box and any veteran can apply for one of the veteran food boxes,” said Sullivan.
Members of the BCFP Board include: Chuck Allcorn, Tammy Culpepper, Sherry Davis, Angie Shepard, Tara Chyi, Susan Sullivan and Jeannie Arnold. They are also volunteers.
“We don’t want to shorten our hours of operation, but we are closing early because we just don’t have enough food to meet the demand,” said Sullivan. “We hope this early closure is temporary and we can resume normal hours when we have the food to distribute.”
BCFP is located at 121 Tower Drive in Warsaw. For more information call (660) 428-3500.
