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Fort Gibson

Related Photos

  • Volunteers check expiration dates and sort food brought into the Community Food Pantry last week. The center is always in need of canned meats, such as tuna, Spam and chicken. Cereals, including oatmeal, are always needed, as well as flour, sugar, peanut butter and jelly. Working at the food pantry here are volunteers, from Sherlene Bain, left, Ruth O’Dell and, at back, Jere Gibson.

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  • While the Fort Gibson Community Food Pantry was well stocked before Thanksgiving, Ruth O’Dell said there is an ongoing need at the pantry for staples. The number of requests for assistance has nearly doubled in the last year. Below is Jere Gibson.

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Discussion

November 25, 2009

Food pantry feels economy crunch

Requests have doubled, worker says

By Liz McMahan

Nearly five dozen Fort Gibson residents received food baskets this Thanksgiving, said Ruth O’Dell, a food pantry worker.

“We had more requests this year this year — it’s doubled,” O’Dell said. “We’re struggling.”

Not only has the pantry, located at First United Methodist Church, needed more canned and shelf-stable foods, it’s also needed an infusion of cash, she said.

Since the pantry doesn’t have a place to store frozen goods, it did not give out turkeys, she said. Instated, recipients of food baskets were given $15 meat certificates to be used at Harp’s Food Store to buy whatever meat each family wanted.

The pantry got a little help with both food and money Friday as a last load of food and a hefty cash collection was delivered by students.

It was the proceeds from the school’s efforts to help the pantry. It represented what was to have been collected at a powder puff football game that was canceled due to rain Friday afternoon.

Food pantry workers were grateful for the help.

“Had the school not jumped in and helped us, we might not have done it,” O’Dell said. “We appreciate everyone who has helped us. This is the community’s food bank, it’s not the Methodist Food Bank.”

The church has housed the community pantry at least 40 years, said Jere Gibson, one of the volunteers working at the center Friday.

She said the center gives out food not just for the holidays, but every day.

Giving out Thanksgiving food boxes and the daily distributions make a big demand on pantry shelves, and they are in constant need of restocking, O’Dell said.

Especially needed: Canned meats such as chicken, tuna and Spam; staples like flour, sugar, cornmeal, peanut butter and jelly.

Reach Liz McMahan at 684-2926 or lmcmahan@muskogeephoenix.com.

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Fort Gibson