Stroudwater Food Pantry Status – 3/15/20

Hi Team – This past weekend your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 71 families and provided groceries to a total of 171 people.  This includes 8 families we delivered groceries to, as part of our Last Mile home delivery program.  8 new families joined the pantry this week.

Our supermarket food rescue pickups and food donations totaled 3,921 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Al W., Amy VP, Anne, Cat, Donna and Rhianna, Greg and Deb, Jean and Chad, Karlene, Michelle, Nick, Phil, Steve D. and myself.

Your Stroudwater Food Pantry remains open for business, Sundays 1-3pm, even in the face of the Coronavirus.  In response to this pandemic, we have had to completely reorganize our Sunday operations, following guidelines and best practices from the CDC.  In doing so we hope to make our pantry experience as safe as possible for both our pantry clients and our volunteers.

Our new practice is to no longer allow clients into our church to shop for their groceries.  They remain outside (except for briefly coming into our closed off foyer to sign in); we pre-build the boxes of groceries, put them on a carts and pass the carts outside through another door.  The clients proceed to where their cart is, wheel their groceries to their cars, and bring the carts back when finished.  Carts are wiped down after every use, volunteers wear masks and gloves during the entire shift, and contact between volunteers and clients is eliminated.

Our Sunday team did an amazing job both setting up for and adapting to this new process.  Their attitude and energy made our new grocery distribution operation a resounding success, and a rewarding experience for our clients!

The complexities of the Coronavirus make it impossible to predict who might get it, and impossible to guarantee that someone will not get it.  With that in mind, your Stroudwater Food Pantry has taken the initiative to remain open for as long as we can, and to provide everyone as safe an environment as we can.  The reason why is obvious; so much now hangs in the balance for the community whom we serve, now more than ever.

Thank you all you who serve in this ministry, and may God Bless you and keep you safe!   — Doug

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/