Helping Hands food pantry helps those in need
Unemployment is rampant. Food, gas and energy prices are breaking budgets. Families are struggling to stay in their homes. And too many people wake up and go to bed hungry every day.
St. Marys United Methodist Church’s Helping Hands Ministry has stepped in to help alleviate the hunger problem in its area. With a mission to help end hunger in Camden County, the ministry distributed 46,403 pounds of food and made a difference in the lives of 1,018 families, 1,112 adults, 694 children and 508 senior citizens in 2009 alone.
Begun in 2000, Helping Hands provides food services to low-income residents of Camden County. Open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. until noon, the ministry takes 12 volunteers and three additional emergency on-call workers to run smoothly.
“Our volunteers are very faithful and they believe in this ministry,” said Dottie Simpson, director of the Helping Hands food pantry. “We have a lot of years invested in this, and everyone works as a team.”
Helping Hands also operates a Brown Bag program for seniors over the age of 60. Held the fourth Monday of each month, the Brown Bag program allows senior citizens the opportunity to “shop” for groceries, free of charge, at the food pantry. And for homebound seniors who aren’t able to get out of the house to pick up their groceries, the ministry offers a home delivery service that serves 10 older adults, many in their 80s. Their oldest client is 104.
Not just a food pantry, Helping Hands also stocks diapers and other personal care items such as toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant and dishwashing liquid.
“People who rely on food stamps can’t get these items,” Simpson said. “What brought this to my attention was when I delivered food to a lady and I saw her washing dishes with a bar of soap.”
Helping Hands stocks three types of food: pantry food, which is food donated by community members and organizations; USDA food, purchased through America’s Second Harvest; and snack program food, which consists of fruit, shelf milk and other nutritional foods for families with children.
A study released on February 2 from America’s Second Harvest (now named Feeding America), the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, reports that more than 37 million people, one in eight Americans – including 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors – receive emergency food each year through the nation’s network of food banks and the agencies they serve. The findings represent a 46 percent increase since the organization’s previously released study in 2006.
“We’ve really seen a growth since we joined America’s Second Harvest,” Simpson said, noting an 880% increase in the number of people served by Helping Hands from 2000 to 2009. “I’ve seen people who have donated to us through the years who are now seeking assistance themselves. They’ve lost their homes and their jobs, and it’s not getting any better with unemployment on the rise and food prices soaring; they can’t afford it.
“Our goal is to end hunger in Camden County. We can’t save the world, but we can help the people here.”
--By Kara Witherow, South Georgia Advocate editor
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