Pivotal Point Transitional Housing pantry seeking donations
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — The Pivotal Point Transitional Housing pantry is seeking donations to help meet the needs of residents and families it serves.
The pantry is in need of condiments, including jelly, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and ranch dressing.
The pantry is also seeking canned meals, including Chef Boyardee products, as well as chicken and beef ramen noodles.
Patty Lashbrook, Pivotal Point Communications Coordinator said the pantry could use small quantity gift cards.
"We don't have the logistics quite figure out to manage perishable items right now," she said. "We have a ton of macaroni and cheese but our residents don't have any milk or butter to make that mac and cheese. Small gift cards like $10 so they can get things like milk, bread and eggs."
The organization currently serves 18 households.
"We are supporting some that have children. We have two schedule to move in next week. We're constantly interviewing new applicants," she said. "We get three to four applications everyday."
The pantry helps residents in the program access food while allowing them to build their savings.
"Being able to provide their food items for them freeze up parts of their budget where their able to attack that debt and build up savings," she said.
When the pantry gets low, the organization would have to go to grocery store which affects their budget.
"That takes money out of our budget for other things that we're not able to provide. Sometimes our residents have to put that into their own budget then they find themselves in that awkward position," she said. "It creates more of a struggle when things run low."
Lashbrook praises the community for the support the organization recieves.
"Our community is just so wonderful. The response we get, anytime we have to put out a request the response from our community is just amazing," she said. We have churches, businesses and organizations that run regular food pantry drives. It's just amazing the response that comes from our community and thank you is just not enough.
To donate, community members can visit the Pivotal Point website and fill out the “Contact Us” form.
The items are distributed to individual households, which are often made up of one person, the organization is requesting donations of smaller-sized containers.
