Food Pantries continue to see need | News, Sports, Jobs
(Photo by Michele Newbanks) John Hammond, 81, and Linda Bunnell, 68, check expiration dates on frozen food Wednesday at the Greater Marietta Community Food Pantry.
The Greater Marietta Community Food Pantry is seeing an uptick of families in need, but they are prepared.
There are various reasons why, said Sherry Hill, pantry director. Two are the ends of enhanced unemployment and stimulus checks.
An upside to COVID was the availability of grants that allowed Hill to purchase food and other supplies.
She also received funding through grants to purchase feminine hygiene products and adult pull-ups, neither of which can be purchased with SNAP benefits.
To better help their clients, pantry officials completed a survey and collected 250 responses on what clients needed but weren’t given at the pantry.
“Overwhelmingly, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent and dish detergent,” Hill described.
Foods needed include dairy products, canned beans and coffee.
“It would be nice to pass out coffee (since) it’s not available through the food bank,” she said.
Fresh produce is also needed, since donations are rare.
According to the pantry, a typical box will be about two weeks worth of food and will include meat, boxes of canned goods, dry goods, dairy, produce, bread and bakery, and frozen foods. There will also be non-food items such as toilet paper and hygiene products.
Orvie Fischer, president of the board, described how they are working on ways to address food deserts, which Hill defined as areas where there are no grocery stores or access to food.
He said they’ve recently been determining where these food deserts are and how to serve them.
“I have a hunch that people aren’t starving, but they don’t know when they are eating next,” Fischer surmised.
In the meantime, the pantry has many volunteers who are willing to step in and help where needed.
Lowell resident, Blake McKinney, 71, has been volunteering for the past month. He said he joined the YMCA and saw the pantry was open, then stopped in and found they needed someone to pick up food from Belpre.
He signed up to go every Wednesday to pick up surplus food at Kroger in Belpre.
“We all have a lot to give back. I like that,” he said. “When you have an abundance, you want to give back. I’m retired so I have time.”
Another volunteer is Nancy Broughton, 62, of Marietta, a registered dietician.
Food security has always been important to her.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. They note hunger and food insecurity are closely related, but they are distinct concepts. Hunger refers to a personal, physical sensation of discomfort, while food insecurity refers to a lack of available financial resources for food at the household level.
Broughton said she was pantry director for three years, but wanted to continue to volunteer and feel like she was doing something to help the food insecurity of county residents.
She said she does whatever needs done, from packing up food to restocking shelves to helping unload the truck from the food bank once a month.
She volunteers at the pantry because she’s interested in doing something in the most immediate way to address food insecurity.
“People come here when they have nothing,” she said.
Michele Newbanks can be reached at
