Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Dakota Helvie | Cars line the street while Kansas National Guardsmen and volunteers hand out boxes of...... read more read more
Kansas National Guardsmen and volunteers handed out boxes of fresh produce and dry goods at a food pantry in Effingham, Kansas. The mobile food pantry is held once a month with boxes of food that are given to families to meet the growing food demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cars can be seen pulling up before 8 a.m. and lining up down the street for the start at 10 a.m. The boxes contain fresh produce, pasta, rice, milk and other dairy products. At 9 a.m., the second harvest truck could be seen coming down the road to drop off the boxes for the mobile site. After each pallet is unloaded, the wrap is taken off and arranged for easy transfer to those who are in line.
The process is well established by the volunteers in the community that are there every month. If individuals are unable to come up to the pantry, members of the community come and get it for them to ensure no one goes without food. There is a sense of family in feeding those who are in need and ensuring they are taken care of.
Spc. Laura Wilber, 995th Maintenance Company, Kansas Army National Guardsmen culinary specialist, was excited to assist the community.
“It’s amazing how many people are here already this morning,” Spc. Wilbur said. “It’s my first day on this type of mission and the amount of cars here just shows the direct impact of the mission.”
Spc. Wilber added “To help within the community is something everyone should want to do.”
Distribution sites are determined by the evaluated need within Second Harvest’s service area alongside the access to food and/or resources. These areas are known as food deserts, or areas in which food is hard to come by. Currently, Second Harvest has distributed these items in 26 different site locations each month in Kansas and Missouri. Second Harvest works to nourish families, children, seniors and neighborhoods throughout the region. The organization serves the following counties in Kansas: Atchison, Brown, Doniphan and Leavenworth.
“We do food distributions here once a month from Second Harvest Community Food Bank out of Saint Joseph and are very fortunate to have the National Guard helping us this morning,” Harvey Faffe, Effingham city councilman said. “This distribution point is the second highest distribution point in northeast Kansas.”
Helping those in need is something that Harvey is proud to do, talking to passengers in each car, asking them how their day is and how they are doing. The ability to make those connections and provide assistance is something the communities in Kansas rely on in times of need.
“We drove down from Kansas City to assist with passing out food today,” said Tech. Sgt. Douglas Fisher, 127th Weather Flight, Kansas Air National Guard. “The Guard gives you these opportunities like this to go on missions to help others in the communities.”
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.04.2020 11:13 |
| Story ID: | 373397 |
| Location: | EFFINGHAM, KS, US |
| Hometown: | COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, US |
| Hometown: | EFFINGHAM, KS, US |
| Hometown: | TOPEKA, KS, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Feeding those in need, by SFC Dakota Helvie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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