Winter weather affects food bank deliveries in Mid-Missouri
STOVER, Mo. (KMIZ)
Snow and ice-covered roads have delayed deliveries to several central Missouri food pantries.
Ivy Bend Food Pantry holds weekly pantries along with a separate pantry once a month. The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri delivers the food to the pantry for the monthly shops.
A delivery scheduled for Tuesday was pushed back to Dec. 26, prompting the pantry to notify people who use its services that the food will be coming later than expected. The next food pantry is set for Dec. 28. In the meantime, customers who are in desperate need can still call the pantry and request food from the emergency stock.
Jim Smith, the vice president of the Ivy Bend Food Pantry board of directors, said that this is the first time food delivery was rescheduled as long as he has been with the food bank.
"I know a lot of people depend on this food, and we can't do anything about it when we don't get it," Smith said. "Surely, the food bank can't help it either because of the weather."
Shannon Stokes, the chief programs officer for the Food Bank, said they evaluated the cold weather and the poor road conditions in making the decision.
"We wanted to make sure that our volunteers and that our staff were safe so we chose to go ahead and cancel," Stokes said.
These are the other partner agencies or Food Bank resources that rescheduled services along with their new dates:
- Chariton County Cupboard: Dec. 18
- Salisbury Food Pantry: Dec. 18
- Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Dec. 20
- Fayette Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry: Dec. 20
- Lewis Mobile Food Pantry: Dec. 23
- Serve Mini-Mobile (Callaway County): Dec. 23
- Helping Hands Food Distributions (Clark County): Dec. 26
With the holidays approaching, some families could face even greater difficulties. Smith said the Ivy Bend Food Pantry held a sign-up for families for a holiday food basket that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. The program would also provide gifts for children in the family.
Smith said about 30 families signed up for the holiday program.
"We service about 200 to 225 families so there are still a lot of them who aren't covered," Smith said.
If you are in need of food, you can locate pantries and services near you here.
