Second Harvest mobile pantry serves nearly 450 families on Monday

Aug. 8—Community members gathered Monday to help serve residents in the area through Second Harvest's mobile pantry at St. Jo Frontier Casino.

Second Harvest is a nonprofit food distribution center that serves the community across 19 counties. The food bank hosts 27 mobile pantries a month throughout the 19 counties at various locations.

Deb Ramey, community outreach coordinator for the mobile food pantries, said they host a mobile pantry at the St. Jo Frontier Casino every month.

"We get volunteers through the casino," Ramey said. "The casino is wonderful to let us use the parking lot. We have it here year-round, even in the ice and snow. We also have other wonderful volunteers that come and help us all the time."

Ramey said the mobile pantry hosted at the St. Joe Casino served around 450 families on Monday.

"They served 160 cars today and that'll probably come out to about 1,300 people," Ramey said.

A long line of cars filled the parking lot early Monday morning before the mobile pantry began.

"If you'd been here earlier, you would have seen probably 8 to 9 rows of cars with at least 12 to 15 cars in each one," Ramey said. "They get here at 6 a.m. and will wait."

While the mobile pantries usually begin at 10 a.m., Ramey said they have been starting earlier at 9 a.m. due to the hot summer weather.

"Each car can pick up to three families of food," Ramey said. "If they have neighbors, single moms or somebody that can't get out because they don't have a car, we let them pick up for other people too."

Ramey said there are no income guidelines or restrictions at the mobile pantries.

"We give them a calendar every month and they go to as many of those (mobile pantries) as they want to," Ramey said.

The mobile pantries usually run in two-hour slots or until supplies last.

For more information on Second Harvest Food Bank, visit the website at www.shcfb.org.