It’s the biggest time of year for many charities and other helping organizations as the holiday spirit encourages giving and an outward focus. That holds true for the Semcac food shelves in Preston, Caledonia and Rushford, as well as for other area food shelves.
The holiday season is the biggest time of year for donations. Local businesses, churches, and even schools across Fillmore and Houston Counties give generously and hold food drives. Some even host contests for their employees such as Harmony Enterprises in which the employees build Christmas scenes out of canned goods to be judged by Semcac employees. Valley Design generally donates a box truck full of food along with cash donations. Preston, Rushford and Harmony Foods all work together to run a Bag Hunger campaign to raise food donations. Salvation Army donations provide a Thanksgiving meal to those who utilize the food shelves. Even smaller businesses such as Krage Insurance get in on the giving by donating cases of turkeys and hams for Christmas dinners. Local churches and Girl Scout troops put together baking kits so families can spend time together baking Christmas cookies. “There are a lot of unique things people do to raise donations,” Outreach Services Case Manager Morgan Steffens explained. “We really appreciate the community support.”
This holiday season was comparable to other years although Steffens noted that it’s busy at the food pantries all year long. She’s seen an increase in people using the food shelves over the last few years as grocery prices have gone up. The extra donations this time of year are greatly appreciated. The beginning of November through mid-February tend to be busier at the food shelves. Steffens speculated that the extra expenses of the holiday season contribute to that busyness.
Outreach and Emergency Services Director Wendy Todd explained that while Semcac receives a small amount of funding from the state, donations and volunteers are the main way the food shelves are kept going. The number of volunteers generally doesn’t increase during the holiday season and actually can decrease as some of the elderly volunteers winter in the south. Steffens and Todd both expressed a need for more volunteers, not just during the holiday season, but all year round.
Half of all donations, both food and monetary, that Semcac receives for its food pantries come in during the holiday season. Some of the money donated is set aside for the spring and fall, which is when donations tend to slow down. That money is used to purchase food from Channel One to restock the pantries as needed. A number of churches continue to donate food on a weekly basis, which helps as well. “We’re very fortunate to live in an area that is very generous,” Steffens noted.
The biggest needs that the food shelves have are for pantry staples such as cereal, peanut butter, etc and fresh produce. Some families donate from their gardens, including an Amish family that donates 120 pounds of garden produce a week during the summer months. Nothing is wasted and if some of the produce starts to go bad, it’s donated to farmers with pigs or goats. The best way to help the food shelves is to donate throughout the year, but especially in the spring and summertime and also to volunteer.
The food shelf is open to anyone who meets the income guidelines which are set to 200% of the poverty line or $40,000 per person in the household. While people can use the food shelf anonymously, generally they meet with a Semcac employee to sign up. Once they’re signed up, they can use the food shelf once a month or twice if there are more than three people in the household. Produce can be picked up weekly.
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