2020 Hometown Heroes

2020 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 14, 2020 Page 157 COMMUNITY: WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER! Lincoln Logan Food Pantry serving more customers than ever due to Covid-19 I n the Logan County community, the Lincoln Logan Food Pantry has always been a vital resource for those who are struggling to put food on the table for their families. With the massive number of people who are now staying at home, some laid off from their jobs, some seeing increased food needs because the family is at home for three meals a day, and some finding that it is just getting harder and harder to get what is needed with the financial resources they have at hand, the food pantry is in greater demand than ever. According to Rick Releford, the co-manager at the pantry, they are seeing new customers on a regular basis. They are also seeing returning customers who have not had to utilize the pantry for the past several months and some even for years. The demand is there and the pantry is doing all that it can to provide for everyone who comes to its doors. When the social distancing rules were put into place, the pantry took action to protect customers and volunteers by establishing a drive-thru service for food pick up. Typically customers were permitted to come into the building and do their own shopping. But, as many know, the pantry is not a large building and it is filled with food storage. Releford and those who are responsible for the pantry, its volunteers and its customers, realized that there was not going to be a reasonable way to keep everyone six feet apart while shopping. The drive-thru was set up so that customers and volunteers did not have to have contact. Releford explained that the drive-through is a two stop process. First a customer drives into the parking lot and registers his or her visit with a volunteer at the first stop. Then, the customer pulls forward to stop two. There, volunteers place bags of groceries on the porch and the customer gets out of his or her vehicle and collects the bags. Because customers are not shopping for themselves, Releford said that the pantry has a standardized list of items that go into each order. He said the food items include fresh vegetables, frozen meats, dairy items, canned vegetables, bread, pastries, and cereals. The bags also include personal hygiene items. Releford said that the volunteers at the pantry are paramount to keeping things running smoothly and they are all coming in and doing their part. That is something that Releford appreciates greatly. “These folks are the lifeline to keep operations moving forward,” Releford said. CONTINUED u