Christmas is coming, and the Putnam County Food Pantry has an unusual need: clients.
COVID-19 hasn’t been kind to the poor and hungry, but COVID-19 has been tough on the PC Food Pantry, too. Infection controls have required Putnam County to restrict access and offer only a limited selection. As a result, clients haven’t come in typical volumes.
“We need people,” said manager John Shimkus, who’ll help anybody. “We are down 30% on our clients.”
Other food pantries across Starved Rock Country are gearing up for Christmas and don’t expect fewer clients – quite the contrary. The pandemic figures to increase holiday demand, and that means the food pantries need financial support.
“We’re asking for cash,” said Beth Vercolio-Osmund, director of development for the Community Food Basket in Ottawa, “both because of COVID concerns and also because cash is just more efficient.”
She said food donations aren’t as helpful in 2020 as in past years because of concerns about surface transmission of COVID-19. Cash, on the other hand, enables the pantry to buy bulk food at a steep discount with fewer worries about handling.
Illinois Food Pantry in La Salle also is seeking monetary donations, although Executive Director Mary Jo Credi said she won’t necessarily turn away food donations.
COVID-19 prevented the La Salle pantry from holding its Mayflower food drive; as a result, they need holiday staples such as turkeys, hams, gravy packets, instant potatoes or “anything to help our clients at the holidays.”
Credi cautioned donors that infection controls demand that food donations come directly from the store.
“We cannot take food that has been in people’s cabinets,” she said, “and we cannot take expired food.”
COVID-19 has had one unexpected benefit for the Hall Township Food Pantry: Clients no longer shiver outside while waiting for food.
Jan Martin, executive director of the pantry in Spring Valley, said the pantry had to switch from client’s choice to curbside pickup, which means she and her staff have to bundle up while clients wait outside with the engine running and the heat blowing.
“Actually, people love it,” Martin said. “They don’t have to stand in line. They can sit in their warm cars while they wait for food.”
Cash is welcome in Spring Valley because everything has been ordered. Martin expects having to feed 350 families this Yuletide, up from about 300 last Christmas, which means about 1 in 10 individuals in the pantry’s service area will seek food assistance this year.