Local Food Pantry Needs Help in Hard Times

The Lake Area Shared Ministries Food Pantry in Quinlan serves needy people living in the area with boxes of food, food vouchers to families with children, and some assistance with bills and other expenses to clients.

Executive director Geneva Wheat and president Jerry Porter are astonished at the number of people continually coming in and requesting assistance. The last three months have seen an almost two-fold increase in clients.

There have been 164 boxes given out in the past month, a record for the pantry.

Anyone who comes to their door for assistance are interviewed. If qualified, they become a client.

Clients are given food boxes every 90 days, a food voucher of $10 if there are children in the household, a gasoline voucher of $10 in cases where a client needs to get to a job interview or medical appointment, and assistance with covering medical expenses limited to $250 per household each year.

Wheat and Porter stress that the food pantry is a service provided for individuals and families who have experienced unexpected hardship and need emergency assistance. The pantry is not what Wheat terms a "perpetual free grocery store."

For example, single parents who are struggling to keep food in the house and elderly people who have to decide between getting their prescriptions filled and buying groceries for the month, are ideal candidates for assistance at the Lake Area Shared Ministries Food Pantry.

The pantry was opened in November of 2002, and has been supported by 13 area churches that regularly collect groceries to donate. Individual donors are the major source of income for the pantry, and community fund raisers and food drives also play a big role in their success.

However, because of the economic troubles plaguing our country, the food pantry has had difficulty in obtaining as much assistance as they have in the past.

Dealing with an increase in need and a decrease in donations, the pantry has struggled at times to keep their doors open, and they are constantly in need of any monetary donations or gifts of non-perishable food items.

The schools will be having a food drive throughout the month of November, and InnoScents candles will be sold at Dairy Queen, the Justice of the Peace Office in Quinlan, Doggone Dirty and at the food pantry. All of the profits from the sale of the candles will go to the food pantry.

The food pantry is currently gearing up to send out special boxes in preparation for Thanksgiving. They include a turkey for families to celebrate the holiday.

Wheat and Porter contribute the increase in requests for assistance from people in the community to the hard economic times, and the high number of company cutbacks that lead to lay-offs.

However, they have had to become strict about accepting clients because of lack of funds and resources.

Grocery prices have also increased, causing the price of each box to go up. However, Wheat and Porter praised the local Brookshire’s Grocery for the amount of work they do to help the food pantry.

Both Wheat and Porter say that their job is difficult but rewarding. Wheat says that "it is such a good feeling" when past clients come back after getting on their feet and make donations to the pantry.