Texas County Food Pantry

Food Pantry - distribution of food to those in need. A total of 9,000 individuals received USDA commodies & Community donated food of which 2,633 elderly persons were enrolled in the CSFP Senior Box Program & 1,163 received emergency food. Restorative Justice program donated fresh produce seasonally. Our two satelite locations enabled recipients in remote areas of Texas County access to food while alleviating transportation issues. Funding was used to pay wages of a part-time food manager and another part time worker to transport, weigh, and stock food and maintain the cleaniness/repair of all areas. Six regularly secheduled volunteers helped with daily food distribution, client intake, and record keeping; six more served monthly with satelite distribution duties. Numerous other volunteers assisted in packinging, sorting and stocking food for distribution readiness. Approximately 1,362 volunteer hours were clocked in all aspects of food distribution.

Emergency Assistance - helped 459 persons with rent/mortgage, utilities, lodging, home repair, transportation, clothing, household & personal hugiene items, emergency supplies, birth certificates, ID cards, and GED fees using grant funds and donations. A thrift shop provides clothing and household items free to those in need and at a reasonable price to those who can afford to purhcase. One SCSEP worker, with the help of 3 part-time emploees, regularly scheduled volunteers and numerous other volunteers sort, clean and display donated items for resale or give-away and operate the cash register. Thrift shop revenue is used for agency operation expenses. Unusable clothing is baled and trucked to a recycling center. One part-time employee handles client phone calls, sets up interviews, and maintains record keeping. The Executive Director sees all emergency assistance clients and makes approval decision for client assistance, and vendor payments. A part-time Finance Officer maintains book keeping and writes grans. Close to 870 additional volunteer hours were spent in coordinating, bell ringing, and money counting during the annual Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign, for which our agency is the service unit for Texas County.