Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
A couple of weeks ago Combined Community Services staffers held a food-a-thon in conjunction with radio station WRSW in Warsaw.
The program always fills the CCS food pantry shelves and usually people send money as a donation, too.
But Peggy Lisenbee-Wright, CCS' director of client assistance, and an old hand at the charity, burst into tears when Robert and Wanita Bishop brought in a check from their corn harvest.
"We were shocked," Wright said, but wouldn't disclose the donation amount per the Bishop's request. "I rarely cry and I cried that day."
Robert Bishop also declined to say how much was given to CCS.
"I don't want someone to think $10 isn't enough, because it is," Bishop said. "The food banks are pretty well devastated by the number of people asking for food. This farming community is fortunate. Wanita and I are fortunate."
Bishop trucked an amount of grain to the Clunette Elevator. He asked Clunette owner John Anglin to make out a check to CCS as part of the "No Child Should Go Hungry in a Farming Community" program.
Anglin didn't charge for drying and he made a donation as well.
"This was developed by farmers I'm friends with, David and Renee Millar of Red Hen Turf Farm in LaPorte County," he said. "I heard about it through the John Keller Advisory Group. A farmer, anyone who raises crops, grain or cattle, can take the product to market and sell it in the name of the food bank. The check is made out to food bank and they buy what they need."
Food banks can purchase food for pennies of the cost of regular consumers. Lisenbee-Wright said CCS' costs are 19-cents a pound.
Bishop said markets are strong right now and a bushel of corn is bringing in a lot more revenue.
Although the harvest is primarily over, someone may haul grain out of a bin and sell it.
"This is for the working poor, people who work every day but can't afford groceries, because they have to pay for gas, who go to the food bank.
"Sometimes you have to plant a seed and wait for it to mature," Bishop said. And he should know.
