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| Crowds strain pantry |
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| Written by John Saiz / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Saturday, 01 December 2007 | |
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The weekly grocery handout at Patterson’s Westside Food Pantry drew its largest crowd in at least 10 years Thursday. “It’s the biggest (crowd) I’ve seen ever,” volunteer Lita Verhaegen said. The pantry, 40 S. Fifth St., provides food for people who live in Patterson and in surrounding unincorporated areas. Olga Holcombe said Thursday drew the most people in her nearly 10-year tenure as president. She said it is unlikely there were any larger crowds before she joined the 16-year-old group. The pantry has witnessed a steady increase in demand for its services. It’s that way all over the county, she said, making it hard to keep up. “You can see how bare we are,” Verhaegen said, standing next to the empty shelves usually stocked with cereal. “It used to be full.” Thursday’s crowd grew so large that close to 15 families were sent away. That’s not something the pantry likes to do. “It breaks your heart,” Holcombe said. However, volunteers will hand food out again Thursday. The pantry tries to give enough food so each family member can have three meals a day for three days. On occasion, pantry volunteers also do special programs. They recently sent Thanksgiving baskets to families. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, they will sign people up for Christmas baskets. They’ll deliver the supplies shortly before Christmas Day. The pantry’s food and money come from a patchwork of organizations. Volunteers said much of the canned food the pantry gave out recently came from local Boy Scouts food drive, but many people and groups come together to keep the pantry in operation. The pantry will accept donations of canned foods, store-packaged meats and money. “If it wasn’t for the food drive, we probably wouldn’t have anything,” Verhaegen said. “Thank God for the donations.”
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