The Gilmer Community Food Pantry is facing a shortfall of food to distribute during the ongoing public health crisis.
The local nonprofit’s director reported last week that it’s now harder to purchase bulk food from the pantry’s suppliers, one of which is the Chattanooga Food Bank.
“Everybody is buying from them right now. Food pantries are acting under the assumption that food might not be there (in the future),” said pantry director Allen Triebel.
“We are a medium size county with a large food pantry Fifteen counties in Georgia and about 18 in Tennessee are run out of Chattanooga. Atlanta runs the rest of Georgia,” he added.
The amount of people coming to the local food pantry last Wednesday, the facility’s weekly distribution day, was actually less than usual, reported Triebel. That, he reckons, is due to much of the general public assuming the food pantry is closed during the health crisis.
“The public has not found out that we’re (still) open. Once that happens, we may have empty shelves. The pantry will be open as long as we have enough food, money and volunteers or the government doesn’t close us,” Triebel said.
‘What we really need is canned and boxed goods’
In an effort to keep serving those in need, the food pantry is accepting any donations of unwanted nonperishable food from the general public.
Guidelines similar to those followed for the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive conducted by the postal service are being followed regarding what types of food can be donated.
“We need canned and dry goods, shelf stable things. Things like mac and cheese, spaghetti and soup. We don’t need people to worry about checking the dates. They can just donate what they want and our volunteers will go through it all. Thats our responsibility,” Triebel said.
The pantry is also facing a shortfall in supplies used for its Snack Pack program, which provides canned and boxed food for school students to take home over the weekend.
“The school is too busy right now to handle anything beyond the meals being given out at the mobile locations,” Triebel said
Snack Pack food is usually smaller items that can be carried in a child’s backpack including, but not limited to individual mac and cheese cups, packaged snacks, soups and pudding cups.
Funding for the Snack Pack program usually comes from the local Optimist Club. Like so many other local events, a fundraiser that would have helped keep the program going has had to be postponed until further notice, Triebel said, adding that he’s looking at ways to continue doing Snack Pack during the school closure.
“We have enough (supplies) for maybe 4-5 weeks,” he said. “We wanted to give the food out at the mobile meal sites, but we don’t have the volunteers right now to do that. Their spouse or kids told them not to come in or they have conditions and don’t want to be around the potential (of getting sick). We have had some extra help from the county EMS and sheriff’s department. We are grateful for that.”
How to donate food
There are two ways food donations can be brought to the food pantry located at 5273 Highway 52 East.
“The warehouse is open for donations Mondays, from 8:30-11:30 a.m. If anyone has donations, they can bring them by then,” Triebel said.
Food can also be left in two black boxes near the food pantry’s front entrance.
“If we aren’t there, they can leave donations (outside) in the black boxes where the plastic bags go,” Triebel confirmed.
“We’ve received an overwhelming amount of plastic bags from the public and we have enough of those for the next couple of weeks. What we really need now is canned and boxed goods. Right now, we actually need those more than money because, even if we have money, I can’t buy anything,” he added.
Precautions being taken
Triebel said the pantry’s limited staff is taking added precautions to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
“We’re doing the best we can to protect our volunteers and our customers,” he said. “We’re doing social distancing and we bleach the door handles every Monday. We don’t allow more than five clients in the building at a time on Wednesday. When they go out, another five can come in and we will have three or four people to process those clients. They get in their cars, pop the trunk and we put the food in.”
The new precautions have not slowed down the process, he noted.
“We’ve actually cut down on our processing time. If they’ve been here before, it should take just about a minute,” Triebel said.
The Gilmer Community Food Pantry can be reached at 706-273-3663.