The second Wednesday of every month is a big day for the Texas County Food Pantry and many of the people who receive assistance from the non-profit organization.
That’s because it’s food delivery day, with regard to both receiving and distribution.
In the morning hours, a large monthly shipment arrives via tractor-trailer from Springfield’s Ozark Food Harvest, the main source of the Pantry’s food inventory.
After the month’s provisions have been transferred from the big truck to the Food Pantry warehouse, Pantry vehicles are loaded for delivery to three satellite distribution stations around the county: the Summersville Senior Center, First Baptist Church in Plato and Pineview Heights Senior Apartments in Cabool.
Most of that food is destined for senior citizens who qualify for assistance. Before the Pantry began a monthly delivery network last year, many seniors faced a real challenge just getting their share of food since it required a trip to Houston.
While helping seniors is the primary focus at each satellite location, deliveries also include food for a handful of younger people who would otherwise have to deal with their own logistical problems, for reasons including lack of transportation and disability.
What arrives on the Ozark Food Harvest truck consists of USDA commodities for distribution to both seniors and other Pantry clientele. During February, that list included 406 households and a total of 721 individuals around Texas County.
The delivery run to Cabool serves 55 people, including 40 seniors, while the Summersville run provides for 23 seniors and one non-senior, and the Plato run serves nine seniors and four others.
Summersville Senior Center administrator Evelyn Barfield is on the Food Pantry’s nine-member board of directors. When the idea of delivery to satellite stations was being discussed, she figured it was a natural step to include her senior center.
“They were talking about delivering it to Cabool and I said ‘why not deliver it out here?'” Barfield said. “We have many seniors who don’t need to be driving up there and others who have to get someone else to help them.”
Anita Collins is a social worker stationed at Pineview Heights. Like Barfield, she believes the Pantry’s delivery system has lifted a burden off of many people’s shoulders.
“It’s been a tremendous help for our building,” Collins said. “A lot of our people don’t drive – they’re dependent on someone else to take them somewhere. And for some of the people who struggle with accepting help, it’s easier for them having it brought here.
“We’ve also started picking up quite a few individuals in the community and letting them come here to pick up food, because they face those same challenges with driving.”
Pantry food manager John Randall said that prior to the existence of the delivery system, numerous people each month missed out on getting their share of food because they couldn’t make it to Houston.
“We kept having trouble with that,” Randall said. “On a regular basis, there were at least 20 or 30 who didn’t make it in each month. Not the same ones every time, and not for the same reasons. So we did this to alleviate some of that by making food more accessible.”
The Pantry does have a program that allows people to have someone else pick up food on their behalf, but that still leaves a number of people who don’t have someone else available.
While Food Pantry executive director Sister Clare Reinert and a volunteer or two tend to the monthly run to Plato, Randall and volunteer Rob Malota head to Summersville and Cabool in the Pantry’s cube-van truck.
Reinert said that many of the people served by Pantry delivery were previously eligible for assistance but weren’t getting it due to transportation oriented problems.
“Most of them in those areas are new,” she said. “Transportation is such a big issue for a lot of people. Not only because of gas prices, but many of them don’t even have cars and some of them are older and don’t want to drive.”
While the Cabool and Summerville runs have been in place for the better part of a year now, the Plato run began only a few months ago. Reinert said the numbers on that run might increase substantially in the near future, as more than 100 families have been identified that might qualify for assistance.
“That could be a big challenge for everyone involved,” she said. “Especially our volunteers out there.”
Randall spends most of the rest of each month overseeing the distribution of food at the Pantry headquarters in Houston. During a typical day, he’ll help 20 to 30 clients obtain their allotted share.
Food is distributed based mainly on what’s in stock in the Pantry warehouse. While seniors receive pre-packed “senior boxes” put together at Ozark Food Harvest, the remaining commodities are divided up as evenly as possible among all clients (including seniors), with consideration given to the number of people in a given household.
Basically, whatever comes off the truck one month is what’s available next month. Food donated from several community sources is added, and the result is an ever-changing menu.
“Last month we got a lot of applesauce,” Randall said. “But as far as commodities, we don’t know what’s there until it’s there.”
Randall came to Missouri from Maryland about 15 years ago. He became the Pantry’s food manager about 6 ½ years ago, after receiving assistance himself during a period of unemployment.
He said he has recently noticed a definite change in the number and type of people the Pantry serves.
“It’s the economy,” Randall said. “But there are many more people signed up now than there used to be and many of them are new to this kind of thing.”
While the Pantry’s limited food inventory certainly goes a long way in addressing the needs of many less fortunate people in the community, it is in fact a finite supply and not enough exists to serve everyone who has applied.
Ozark Food Harvest is part of a federally funded system, and increases in funds it receives are unlikely in the current economic climate. That isn’t an optimal situation, especially since that same climate is causing a rise in applications for assistance.
Evidence of that can be found on the Pantry’s waiting list of qualified seniors – a list that is by no means shrinking. Ozark Food Harvest currently sends 235 senior boxes to Texas County; in addition to the ones distributed on the second-Wednesday delivery runs, another 164 are doled out in Houston.
A page-long list of other seniors have signed up, but they must wait to move into the top 235.
“Not only are we not catching up very quickly on the current list, it’s being added to,” Randall said. “But then, so is our general clientele. There are new ones signing up almost on a daily basis.”
Barfield said that with food costs going up and cost of living increases not included in social security benefits for some three years, seniors face an uphill battle.
“I think we’ll be seeing more of them signing up (for assistance) because of food prices,” Barfield said.
Also rising is the number of single and two-person households receiving food assistance in Texas County. In February there were 240 one-person and 92 two-person households.
“There are a few more larger families than there used to be,” Randall said. “But those two smaller categories have never been at a number that phenomenally high.”
Texas County households receiving USDA commodities inFebruary:
1 person – 240
2 person – 92
3 person – 31
4 person – 26
5 person – 9
6 person – 6
7 person – 3
8 person – 2
Total – 406
Total individuals – 721