Foreign exchange students helped fill boxes with food Wednesday, assisting long-time volunteers at the InterChurch Food Pantry in Franklin as they delivered food to low-income families caught in the midst of a pandemic.
Grace Kamate, an exchange student from Cameroon who is studying at Center Grove High School, knows the coronavirus has had an economic impact on families everywhere, Kamate said.
“In my country, I don’t know how they’ve handled this, but I think it’s amazing they closed restaurants (here),” Kamate said. “People don’t have work anymore and they have to feed their families.”
Job losses have swept the U.S. as bars, restaurants and retail stores have closed their doors. By summer, 3 million Americans will likely lose their jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
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The InterChurch Food Pantry usually restricts people to one pickup of four to five days-worth of food every other week, but has lifted those restrictions in the face of the public health emergency, which has seen more than 250,000 cases worldwide, and killed an elderly Johnson County resident this week, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
Due to the disease being particularly dangerous for older people and people with preexisting health conditions, younger volunteers have been called on to help distribute food. Instead of going into the building to pick up food, visitors fill out a form that gets passed to volunteers, who fill boxes with a selection of meat, potatoes, bananas, cheese and juice, among other selections, Kamate said.
People who drive to the pantry for food pick up their boxes outside the building and load them into their vehicles themselves, said Carol Phipps, the pantry’s manager.
“There’s very minimal contact with families getting food,” Phipps said. “We’re trying to minimize any possible virus spread. The families that have come have been overwhelmingly appreciative. Someone said she lost her job because the restaurant she worked at closed. She said, ‘I’m so happy you’re here to provide food at this time.’”
Volunteers arrive at the pantry an hour early and leave 30 minutes after it shuts down to visitors. The pantry is open from noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. The pantry needs about 25 volunteers a day to keep it going, which the pantry either hit or came close to throughout the week, Phipps said.
On average, the pantry serves 3 million pounds of food. In the first hour and 20 minutes of service Wednesday, the Pantry had already distributed food to 32 families. By the end of the week, they served 430 families, she said.
Volunteer Doha Avdelsamae, a foreign exchange student from Egypt studying in Shelbyville, wants to take some of the ideas of pandemic food distribution to her home country, Avdelsamae said.
After coming up empty at Walmart, Franklin resident Shannon Spencer was glad to see the InterChurch Food Pantry doing its part, Spencer said.
“I went to Walmart and there was literally nothing, not even pizza, no eggs; finally Kroger got eggs. It’s really weird and creepy,” Spencer said. “For times like this when the community (and) the world are struggling, it’s good to have a place you can reach out to. Hopefully they’ll be here for a while.”
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Pantry Hours: Noon to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday.
To donate: Enter through the front door and drop off items during pantry hours. During closed hours, drop off donations at the shed outside the pantry.
To volunteer: Email [email protected]
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