Helping Hands Continues To See Need For Food Pantry
Helping Hands Continues To See Need For Food Pantry
Posted
Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
Helping Hands Continues To See Need For Food PantryMENTONE – While Mary and Jerry’s Helping Hands, 10072 W. CR 600S, Mentone, has been around 35 years, Jerry and Mary Secrist still see a need for the food pantry’s service.
Mary said neither of them grew up with all that much, and they both thought if they ever had a chance to help people, they would. She said at first they didn’t really have many people coming, but now they’re seeing the third generation of families coming to Helping Hands.
Jerry said Helping Hands covers the area in the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, but Mary said they don’t turn anyone away.
He said Helping Hands sees approximately 200 families a month. Families can come into the pantry once a month.
Jerry said they went around to some of the other food pantries to see what they were giving and they weren’t giving much.
Jerry said he was on the committee in South Bend for the Food Bank of Northern Indiana. He’s seen what the others have done and Helping Hands tries to give people a little more than what other food banks do.
A family of four or five gets a box of 30 items, plus meat, bread, produce and milk.
Jerry said they go to South Bend every week to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana and pick up 2,000 pounds of food. TVSC also supports Helping Hands during the holidays by having food drives. Beaver Dam and Mentone United Methodist churches support the food pantry, and there are some individuals who donate food. The food pantry does accept meat, but it has to be through a licensed source. Jerry said for other food, they’ll accept pretty much anything.
There are 10 volunteers that help out when the food pantry is open on Thursdays during the summer from 2 to 5 p.m. They are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 22 for Thanksgiving and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 22 for Christmas. For the holidays, the food pantry tries to give more food to people. Jerry said they give turkeys and dressing to the larger families.
If someone would like to donate food or volunteer, they just need to let Jerry know by leaving a message at 574-551-6433.
Jerry said Helping Hands is regulated somewhat by the state. Since it gets state-funded commodities, the pantry has to follow state rules.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Helping Hands hasn’t had an income requirement to get food. Mary said they’ve seen a change in demand. They’ve seen families who’ve had nice cars but didn’t have money to buy food. Mary said the families are just poor and sometimes getting food from pantries is all they know.
Some of the families that come to the food pantry know of other families that are struggling to provide for their families. However, they don’t come to the pantry because they’re too proud, so some of the families get food for them, Mary said.
Mary said Helping Hands doesn’t try to treat people like numbers.
She said there is probably a stigma of getting food from a food pantry, but doesn’t know why because if a person’s hungry, they’re hungry. She does think the stigma is less than what it used to be.
“They’re coming more ... they’re not worried about that as much,” she said.
