“They are increasing our capacity to meet the growing emergency food needs of our community,” Tyra Jackson, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank said.
The vehicles and additional guards will be used to help with home food deliveries for the elderly, Jackson said.
“We are very limited in the vehicles we have and what we can load into those vehicles,” Jackson said. “The National Guard vehicles are able to put the pallets of food right onto the vehicles in a quicker and more efficient manner. It’s going to be really great for us and the people that we serve.”
MORE: Coronavirus: National Guard assisting food bank, helping ‘amp it up’
The food bank distributed roughly 350,000 pounds of food to over 3,000 households with the help of the guard last week, Jackson said.
Due to the coronavirus, the food bank no longer allows residents to walk in and pick up their own food — which is where the help from the guards comes in handy. The 30 guards help to package dry boxes, produce boxes and refrigerated boxes as well as assist in distributing the boxes through drive-thru pantries and delivery.
With only 13 full-time employees, Jackson said Second Harvest “is fortunate to have the support of the national guards.”
“It’s pretty rewarding” to get to help out his community, Ohio National Guard Specialist Logan Wilson said.
“I just moved to this community, I bought my own house and everything,” Wilson said. “It’s nice being able to help my new community.”
Wilson said a lot of elderly residents “seem a little nervous,” when the guards first arrive with the trucks.
“But once they realize what we are doing and that we are just trying to help them out, you can see it on their face. It changes their entire mood,” Wilson said. “Even if we can just impact the few people we are touching, in this sense, it helps the community as a whole.”
Annette Chambers was one of those residents who Wilson delivered food to on Friday. She said the delivery of the food is a “huge” help.
“They are wonderful,” Chambers said. “God bless them.”
MORE: Foodbank to serve more Clark, Champaign, Logan County households with schools closed
In addition to receiving help from the guards, Jackson said the community as a whole “rallied around us.”
“More people have been donating and giving to us,” Jackson said. “We have had a lot of people donate who have never really donated to us before and we love to see that.”
Jackson said the food bank has “definitely” seen an increase in the number of residents utilizing the non-profit, much like other food banks around the country.
Second Harvest was already serving more residents than usual before the coronavirus outbreak. In March, the non-profit implemented eight mobile pantries across the south side of Springfield following the closure of Kroger’s store on South Limestone Street.
“We have managed to incur more expenses,” Jackson said. “We are starting to look at our budget for the rest of the year and find out what we need, so with receiving those additional donations from the community, they have been very helpful.”
Residents who are interested in donating can find a link for monetary donations at theshfb.org, or on their Facebook page. Second Harvest does not accept canned goods or other dry food items as donations.
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