By Drew Johnson
Every once in a while, I have to write a column about the food pantry, and this month is the perfect month to do it! The reason why I have to remember to write a column about the pantry is that it is such a foundational piece of South County Community Services that we sometimes forget how big of a deal it is.
And the reason this month is perfect to talk about it is because May 10th is the Postal Food Drive!
South County Community Services operates a Loaves and Fishes (KLF) food pantry—the only such pantry in the South County area. We’ve had it here for a long time and it’s gone through a lot of changes. In the beginning, it was housed in the basement of our old building, where volunteers would make up bags of food to hand out to people in need in the area. Now, we feel like we might be at our final evolution—we have a dedicated space in the building that we share with Generous Hands with plenty of cold storage and shelf space. Clients can come in twice a month to pick out eight days’ worth of food and receive household supplies once a month. It is by far our busiest program with close to 32,000 days of food provided to members of the community.
Our pantry volunteers are also (in our opinion) some of the best around! In 2019 our pantry volunteers as a group won the Willie Webster Award from Loaves and Fishes for Outstanding Service—as the presenter mentioned, many of our clients prefer coming to SCCS over any other pantry. Our volunteers are friendly and try to make it as easy as possible for our clients to get the help they need. They also help sort food, stock shelves, and place food orders.
The Postal Food Drive (again, on May 10th) is one of the biggest sources of food for us throughout the year. This year it is especially important as we have seen some of our other sources of food dry up. If you can, the Postal Food Drive is a great opportunity to donate! We need all sorts of food and can take anything that is non-perishable and not expired. We can especially use hearty soups (like Chunky brand), condiments, and spices, but really the variety is most important—pick out some things that you think would be helpful in putting together a meal, and rest assured that someone will put it to good use.
And if you are in need of food, please give us a call!
Drew Johnson lives in Kalamazoo and is the Director at South County Community Services. He has a small quarter acre homestead with chickens, bees, and hops (and more!), a wonderful wife, and three energetic children. He can be reached at 649-2901 or ajohnson@southcountycs.com
For more information on South County Community Services, please check out our Facebook at facebook.com/southcountycs or visit our website.
