7.5 tons of food given away
Staff writer
When a semi trailer full of food to be given away arrived at 7 a.m. at Eastmoor United Methodist Church in Marion, some people already were waiting though distribution wasn’t scheduled to begin until 8 a.m.
Volunteers began distributing food ahead of schedule, at 7:45 a.m., and by 8:15 a.m., they had given food to 65 households, said Debi Kreutzman, community relations manager for Kansas Food Bank, based in Wichita. The mobile food bank remained open until 10 a.m.
Organizers planned on having enough food for 200 to 300 families. Food was given to 224 families for a total of 785 individuals from 14 communities, both in and out of Marion County, Kreutzman said after the mobile food bank left. About 7.5 tons of food were given out.
The only information recipients were asked to provide was their ZIP code, how many people were in their household, and how many were children, adults, and age 65 and older. The surveys listed 317 children and 42 senior citizens. Most Marion County communities had at least one recipient, as did Newton, Cedar Point, and Herington, Kreutzman said.
That information is useful in determining where the mobile food bank will travel in the future, Kreutzman said.
The closing of a food bank last summer in Burns was a blow to efforts to combat hunger in Marion County, she said.
Kreutzman, who grew up in Marion, thanked local volunteers for their help.
“We couldn’t have done this without community support,” she said.