Cornerstone United Methodist Church provides 50 pounds of food to 200 people on Saturday.
“This is a mobile food pantry out of Cincinnati,” said Jerry White of Cornerstone Church. “They supply the food. We pass out vouchers to whoever needs the food, and we supply them with the food.”
White said their plan for the day was to provide 200 families 50 pounds of food each.
“You’ve got juice, corn, spaghetti, frozen meat, canned goods such as beans, vegetables, fruit,” White said. “People in Portsmouth need help so we’re here to help.”
Lynne Rodeheffer was helping keep the line moving and organized so each person got everything available to them.
“We just want to serve the community and share our love for Christ by serving others in our community that could use a little extra food,” Rodeheffer said. “We’re delighted to be able to do that.”
Rodeheffer said the program is by invitation. The team has gone to different groups within the church and other participating churches in the area to get names of families needing help. Cornerstone handles the mobile food pantry the second Saturday of each month.
“The food is actually donated, though the church has to pay for the service,” Rodeheffer said. “So we pay for the service to provide food for these families who can maybe use a little extra help in these tough economic times.”
Johnny Palmer of Cincinnati works for the Free Store Food Bank there and drives the truck that brings the food to each sponsoring location.
“We are seeing a lot more need,” Palmer said. “We run these trucks six days a week.”
Bonnie Kelly was in line to get food for her mother and herself.
“Definitely, there is a great need now than in the past,” Kelly said. “It is getting really bad. I just moved down here 2 1/2 years ago from Michigan, and I thought it was bad in Michigan, but it is a lot worse here.”
Those in line for the food were also finding warm friendly smiles. One of those smiles belonged to Cornerstone Pastor of Lay Development Kym James.
“We are trying to bless people that are working really hard and some of them we know in this line today work two jobs and still can’t make ends meet. Some of them are having to choose between food and medicine. Some of them have been in recovery and they’re clean and sober for six and eight months. They’ve got four kids. And for the first time in their life they’re working jobs but still struggling to make ends meet,” James said. “So we’re really trying to help people who are really trying to help themselves. We just want to be a blessing, and we’re loving this.”
FRANK LEWIS may be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232, or flewis@heartlandpublications.com.
Another thought was they leave one church food bank pantry, then hit 3 or 4 more.
Not everyone does that but great numbers do.
Some been hitting the food banks for years. Never worked a day in their life. Many are so called "needy" by choice. Free monthly foodstamps then see what else is free to supplement it with.
Just some observations of many years of volunteering.