At the end of the month, funding for food stamps will run out. The administration has decided not to release the emergency funding reserve mandated for this type of situation. This means the LCM could see 200 to 300 new clients in the next 2 weeks, possibly more.
We are currently serving 725 households. The problem is not whether or not we can absorb this many new clients. We can. Unfortunately, we cannot absorb them all at once. We will be processing as many new clients daily as we can. The rest will be given an emergency food ration with an appointment for the next available service day for a regular food order.
To feed this many people, we will need to cut some programs. Beginning November 1, we will not be giving any non-food item that is not donated. We will cut back on some of the food items we purchase – like cereal and snacks for children.
We may need to cut back our hours in the thrift store for a couple of weeks. We get a lot of walk-in requests for service on Tuesday and Thursday. We need these days to reset and restock. We will not be able to handle the requests for exceptions with that many new people. For everyone’s safety, we will need to close the building while we restock.
It will take about two weeks to fold everyone into the system. After that, it will be business as usual.
We are getting calls asking what we most need. The answer is cash. Bulk buys are more efficient and cost effective than food drives. If you wish to contribute with food, please focus on beans, rice, pasta, pasta sauce and the smaller jars of peanut butter.
To handle this many clients, we will be serving 85 households, minimum, each service day. While this is within our capability, we will need to add another hour to our service days. We’ll need more volunteers who can work Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12-3. See Dan if you would like to volunteer for the pantry.
The next few weeks will be a challenge to be sure. I remind myself frequently that Jesus fed 4000 and 5000 households in a single day in two distinct miracles. We should be able to manage 1000 over an entire month.
-Jackie