Where there’s a constant need ...
Where there’s a constant need ...
By STU MERRY
What if you went to the McLean Family Resource Center expecting to receive food items, only to find that the shelves were bare?
Though it hasn’t gotten to that point, it’s come perilously close.
In April, the food pantry served 10 families consisting of 49 individuals. More than 1,800 lbs. of food was handed out. About half the resource center’s food pantry budget went out the door.
On average, the food pantry serves 6-9 families a month.
Stacey Pfliiger, direct service coordinator for the resource center, doesn’t think the need will subside. "With summer, there’s always transient population. We will get more calls as our population swells," she said.
The need is real. And, it is constant. That’s why Pfliiger is asking for donations to the food pantry not only now, but throughout the year.
"People generally only think of the food pantry in the fall, between school starting and Christmas" said Pfliiger. "But it’s a 365-day a year need. We need it from January through December as well."
The biggest problem comes from a lack of space. The pantry is shoehorned into the cracker box-sized 874-square-foot Resource Center on Main Street in Washburn. There’s no room to stock up. Basically, what comes in goes right to the shelves.
