North Scott Food Pantry finds help
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By Kurt Allemeier | Thursday, January 31, 2008 |
Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES Volunteers Deanna Nielson, left, and Carol Lineback sort through food at the North Scott Food Pantry. The pantry is seeing more demand, and more donations. Buy this Photo
ELDRIDGE, Iowa — Inconspicuously tucked behind a scrapbooking store and a Chinese restaurant, the North Scott Food Pantry is getting more visibility and help these days.
The pantry seemed headed toward
difficulty in early October after Terror in the Woods was shut down by a Scott County District Court judge because of safety concerns. The pantry was a beneficiary of the Halloween attraction and had received as much as 1,000 pounds of food in previous years.
Although inventory would have been low after helping people around the
holidays, the pantry’s shelves are well-stocked now.
Businesses, organizations and students stepped up to help the food pantry, chairwoman Rebecca Tooley said. She told the story of a girl who chose to help the food pantry instead of having a birthday party.
“The community replenished it and more,” Tooley said.
Cans of tuna and boxed dinners sit on shelves opposite a grab-bag shelf with cans of asparagus spears and other less-common vegetables. Volunteers sort and shelve food. The pantry, open twice a week, doesn’t have a mailing address, but Tooley said the Eldridge Post Office delivers mail addressed in its name.
The pantry serves about 40 families a month, double the assistance it was providing two years ago. The needs of people in the community and the needs of the food pantry were spotlighted by the Terror in the Woods trouble.
“This community will give anything,” she said. “They just need to be made aware.”
Central Scott Telephone stepped in to help the food pantry, too. Starting late last year, the company provided a discount on high-speed Internet service to new users in exchange for a donation of food or money for the food pantry. Company officials made a second delivery to the pantry last week.
Along with several boxes of food, the company also gave Tooley $208, bringing its financial contributions to more than $500.
“When I saw how much people brought, I was overwhelmed by that,” Butch Rebman, Central Scott Telephone president, said. “We were very happy to do it.”
The company also has assisted fire departments and libraries in its service area, Rebman said.
Tooley said the food pantry, run by 10 churches in the Eldridge area, appreciates the company’s help, knowing it is part of the community.
“Their customers could be clients of ours at some point,” she said. “Anyone could be laid off at any time.”
Kurt Allemeier can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or kallemeier@qctimes.com.
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