Residents of Cache Valley collected some 10,000 pounds of food on Saturday March 18, 2023.

LOGAN – Saturday was a big day for the Cache Community Food Pantry. It was a big haul for the provider of food for people going through a rough patch. The economy is forcing even middle income families to rely on food from others.

Matt Whitaker the executive director of the Cache Food Pantry stands in front part of the food collected on Saturday March 18, 2023.

Matt Whitaker was all smiles Monday as his staff began to sort through Saturday’s haul.

This was one of our best food drives we’ve had for a long time,” Whitaker said. “We think there might be 10,000 pounds of food. It’s hard to tell until we have a chance to go through it. We’re going through it right now.”

The food drive was organized through JustServe.org. Gary Anderson leads the organization in Cache Valley and he kept the website up and going and it gave all of the communities the information they needed. JustServe is an international volunteer organization with a host of opportunities for people to give service in a variety of ways.

JustServe was founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a charity service organization that anyone could use, regardless of religious affiliation.

The justserve.org website has a variety of opportunities to help people and organizations.

Mat Whitaker hold some of the food collected for Saturdays food drive on March 18, 2023.

Whitaker said what made the whole food drive go smoothly was Cache County Search and Rescue.

Cache County Search and Rescue had the boxes out at our 14 locations and when they were full they brought them to us,” he said. “We were done by 12:30 p.m.”

Besides all the food collected they received about $14,000 in cash donations.

The information on doorhangers was distributed to most if not all the doors in Cache Valley and the response was great the Cache Community Food Pantry executive director said.

The Cache Food Pantry serves some 800 families in Cache Valley.

“This will go a long way to taking care of the 800 families we work with on a monthly basis,” he said. “And we have about that many more we serve through different organizations like the senior centers, CAPSA.”

The Food Pantry also serves Rich, Franklin and Box Elder county food pantries.

There are five different ways to help the food pantry located in Cache Valley:

-They take Credit Cards/Venmo.

-They accept checks and money orders.

-Monthly contribution

-Shop on Amazon

-Donate food/materials.

 







Source link