Heading into the year-end holidays, the Gilmer Community Food Pantry is experiencing a situation that’s somewhat of a 360 from what it experienced during much of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In that time, the pantry had enough food to serve more families and individuals than the smaller number that was coming. Now, due to ongoing supply chain issues and added difficulty obtaining certain items from its food suppliers (food banks in Atlanta and Chattanooga), shelves are growing bare.
Over the last two Wednesdays, the pantry distributed food to more than 260 families, noted Allen Triebel, community outreach coordinator.
“We’ve had supply chain issues since before the coronavirus, but we didn’t have as many people coming so it wasn’t as big of a problem. (Our number of clients) has grown each month over the last seven months,” he added. “We’ve had (different groups) that did food drives for us, and we haven’t had trouble getting money for the pantry. It’s getting food for the pantry.”
The two food banks that supply most of the local pantry’s shelf-stable food inventory just don’t have several items the pantry normally receives, and community food banks that buy from the larger suppliers have to go by what’s available at the time they place orders, Triebel explained.
“What they buy is based on a decision in their buying department. We can only get (food) from Atlanta once a month, and they don’t deliver. They ship to Dalton, and Chattanooga picks it up for us,” he added.
Right now, the most-needed items include canned spaghetti sauce, canned soup, canned vegetables, canned fruit, ramen noodle packs, instant potatoes and squeezable jelly, noted Triebel. “Basically, any type of non-perishable food (will help),” he said.
Anyone who would like to donate nonperishable food items to the pantry can do so at its location at 5273 Highway 52 East. There are drop-off bins set up outside the building for this purpose, Triebel noted.
The pantry will be closed the week of Thanksgiving for the holidays, including Wednesday, the day that food is typically distributed to clients.
“It’s hard to get people to come in the Wednesday before a holiday. Every year we’re closed for either Christmas or Thanksgiving, depending on which day the holiday falls,” said Triebel.