Calvary United Methodist Church Food Pantry-Ames

"With the exception of this donation, our pantry doesn't receive any meat throughout the year," explained Sandy Roth, coordinator of the Calvary United Methodist Church in Ames. "So to say this is a blessing is an understatement. Everyone we serve is going to be so exited."

Thus far in 2017, the Calvary UMC Food Pantry has helped more than 240 elderly, children and families in the city of Ames and surrounding communities in Story County. Our first stop on the sixth and final day of our journey to Haul Out Hunger, our crew was excited to restock the freezers of the food pantry with 600 pounds of pork.

"We open our pantry every Tuesday afternoon and have recently started a program throughout the school year for homeless and/or food insecure children," said Sandy. "Volunteers from the church come together and make packages with different foods. Whether it's ravioli, macaroni and cheese or bread and peanut butter, we make sure the packages contain meals for the kids to take home on the weekends. I'm not sure what they'd eat otherwise."

At the end of the 2016 school year, the Calvary UMC Food Pantry was putting together nearly 100 packages every week. "In order to learn and grow children need to be fed," continued Sandy. "Food is a basic need and something we take for granted, and to think that these kids are going hungry just breaks my heart. They deserve more than that and we're doing all that we can to help. We're a small pantry, but very bit helps."

If it wasn't evident before how compassionate and selfless the volunteers behind local food pantries are, it hopefully is now! After our visit with Sandy and her husband Bill, who have been at the Calvary UMC Food Pantry for just one year, we're feeling inspired to continue helping those in need on our journey to Haul Out Hunger. On the agenda for today is more than 12,000 pounds of pork intended for 15 local food banks, panties, non-profits and local assistance organizations in north central and western Iowa.

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