With Christmas food and fun cheerfully looming ahead, it is easy to forget that hard times still press heavily on some local families. The Livingston Food Pantry of Park County is helping to relieve the pressure to have a hot meal and enough to go around the table every day of the week. Although it may be difficult to believe, many individuals strive eat only once a day for financial reasons or subsist on only an evening meal.
Food Pantry Director Micheal McCormick says increase in demand for assistance was almost 50 percent higher for this year through October 2009 compared to the food distribution statistics for the same period in 2008. The Pantry also gave out 223 Thanksgiving food baskets this year, a ten percent gain on last year’s 200-plus baskets.
With volunteers and donations, word of mouth and no government subsidies of any kind, the Livingston Food Pantry is aiming to help families buffer the hard times with a five to seven-day supply of food. The program is set up for a “staple shopping” day every 30 days with produce and perishables available to fill in between. Some of the basic staples included are canned meats and fruits, peanut butter and cereals, beans and rice with some frozen items also in stock.
When picking up the monthly box, the options are left to the family receiving assistance as much as possible, such as cereal choices and sides to go with meals.
The Food Pantry also helps make sure everyone in the community is fed everyday with the BackPack Program, a Senior Commodities Program and the Summer Lunch Program.
The BackPack Program was developed by a school nurse to help address the needs of kids who get meals during the week at school but still go hungry on the weekend. The concept became a pilot program of the National Council of Feeding America in 1995, and became an official Feeding America program in July 2006. With more than 90,000 school kids being served and approximately 200 elementary children in Livingston taking part this year, this is one of those program that just works, says McCormick.
The program provides for free small bags of nutritious, non-perishable snacks and meals to be placed anonymously and discreetly in the lockers of participating children to be taken home for the weekend. The yearly cost per student per year is $120 and the program is not subsidized by any grants but solely through donations.
The Food Pantry also works with LINKS for Learning and the City of Livingston to supplement children who need lunch through the summer vacation. The Summer Lunch Program provides a cold lunch is served at the Livingston Civic Center.
The Senior Commodities Program is yet another way the Food Pantry is helping to keep people from going without the basics from day to day. In addition to the monthly staple box and interim produce and perishable shopping offered, this program helps when the limited income and cost of medications and bills that must be paid take precedence over items like juice, cheese and cereal.
The Livingston Food Pantry is always accepting help in the form of volunteers, donations of non-perishables or money. Perhaps for the loved one who has everything already, a gift in their name might be something never before received: good will to another.
—Laura Bolduc
The Livingston Food Pantry is always accepting help in the form of volunteers, donations of non-perishables or money. Perhaps for the loved one who has everything already, a gift in their name might be something never before received: good will to another. it very good and delicioso!!!!
Posted by: weight loss | February 26, 2010 at 02:22 PM