Grant United Methodist offers food to those in need

On the evening of Thursday, July 9, Grant United Methodist received a truckload of food totaling at 7,200 pounds of food for those in need of assistance.

Church members, volunteers and those who would bring home some of the food that night all gathered to help unload and sort all that was delivered.

Grant United Methodist has been providing food boxes to those in need for around five years, according to Diana Pankonin, the community liaison for the Perkins County Ministerial Association which runs the local food pantry.

They receive food deliveries each week which they box up and give to those enrolled in the program. Recipients are able to bring the boxes home that night, as much of the food is frozen and Pankonin does not have access to that much freezer space.

One delivery arrives every Tuesday, with the contents pre-boxed and ready for distribution. Each box contains 15 pounds of produce, seven pounds of dairy, seven pounds of some kind of protein, and a half gallon of milk. These boxes are currently being provided by a grant received during the pandemic, and they go to 50 families that have signed up.

The other delivery comes once every other week and is provided by the USDA in conjunction with the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha. The USDA will supply additional foods as well, depending on different farmers they are working with.

For example, the USDA might purchase a hog to provide bacon and other pork products for the food boxes. 

This month, the USDA purchased fresh blueberries for this program. The majority of the recipients of the food boxes are from Grant, which Pankonin is pleased with because she knows they are helping community members directly.

“We cannot have hungry people in Perkins County,” she said. “That is totally unacceptable to me.”

During the earlier phases of pandemic lockdown, Pankonin had to deliver the boxes to recipients, delivering 60 to 80 boxes of food each week to ensure no one went hungry despite everything going on at the time.

The only requirement for signing up to receive food boxes is need, and Pankonin says “need” just means if you feel you need assistance, just ask and it’s yours. 

They do not have income requirements, and she does not believe she has seen any abuse of the program.

The USDA’s food packages do require a form be filled out, but Pankonin says it’s nothing too major.

Pankonin urges all who feel they are in need of food assistance to contact her to sign up. She has a Facebook group called “Perkins County Food Box Distribution” set up to provide information about food deliveries. 

She can be reached through a Facebook message or a phone call at 308-352-8251. 

The food box program does not discriminate for any reason, and the goal is simply to help anyone who is in need.