BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) - A mobile food pantry has been set up in northeastern Tennessee to serve the growing number of students in need.
The Bristol Herald Courier (https://bit.ly/1eWbb1y) reports the pantry will serve families with students attending schools in Sullivan and Unicoi counties.
“This program is designed to serve more outlying areas at different times of the day,” Food Bank spokeswoman Kathy Smith said. “It’s unusual for us to have a distribution this time of day. It’s later in the day. We try to make it more convenient for the families.”
Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee said it was able to set up the program with a $20,000 grant from Procter & Gamble. The organization handed out all sorts of food at a recent event including chicken, cheese, cabbage and milk.
“It’s pretty good food,” Smith said. “A lot of the fresh fruits and vegetables, other dairy products come out through our mobile pantry. It’s not just a box of dry goods.”
Smith says the initiative grew out of a need to expand the existing backpack program in which food is sent home in children’s backpacks on Fridays so they will have enough food over the weekend.
“This is once a month, and with the kids backpack program, children get food to take home over the weekend,” said Sullivan County Schools Social Worker Linda Holden. “We mostly target those families so they can have food to help them get through the month.”
Holden said she contacts families to let them know about the mobile food pantry. During a recent event at one elementary school, she said she expected to distribute food to 63 families that had 91 children.
In Sullivan County, the demand for food pantry items has continued to increase. Over the last decade, the number of students who receive reduced or free lunch has gone up by 7 percent.
“There just seems to be a lot of need,” Smith said, adding that the new program is a “good resource for families.”
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Information from: Bristol Herald Courier, https://www.bristolnews.com
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