Latest news with #PantryPlusMore
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Menards continues annual tradition of food drive
Jun. 5—WESTOVER — June marks the beginning of the annual Menards Food Drive to help give back to the community in Morgantown. The annual drive is held from June 1 until the end of July, according to Adam Stevens, general manager of the local Menards store. "We have a drop site and we're partnering with the Pantry Plus More in town here, " Stevens said. "And we're doing it for the months of June and July. We actually do get a fairly good amount of donations, whether it was something purchased at the store or elsewhere." Stevens added Menards receives at least a pallet's worth of donations whenever the store aids in a charitable cause. So far the donation cupboard is bare, but Stevens noted most of the assistance arrives on the weekends. "We just did a pet food drive recently, and each month, we look for a different opportunity to help the community out and find a different cause, " he said. "The pet food drive did fairly well. It might not be as big as the regular food drive, but it did very well. We got over a pallet's worth of goodies." Menards also participates in a back-to-school supply drive for local students, as well as toy drives at Christmas. "In the past, we've done school supply drives during July and August, " Stevens said. "Sometimes around Christmas, we will do a toy donation. Then throughout the rest of the year we do little donations for either a month or two months."
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bloom: The food crisis is here
Apr. 18—MORGANTOWN — MORGANTOWN—The need and the funding for food programs are heading in opposite directions according to one local official. "This is really not a political issue, " Tom Bloom said. "This is common sense. Of all the programs to cut, why would you cut the most essential program in the state, the country—feeding kids and feeding families ? Bloom, a Monongalia County Commissioner and co-founder /executive director of the nonprofit Pantry Plus More food program, posed the question during a recent discussion with The Dominion Post. He can foresee a looming disaster. He got a sneak peek last weekend, when the number of people who showed up to the Mountaineer Food Bank's weekly food giveaway was as high as ever—some 306 families—but the food available was a fraction of the typical amount. PPM runs the giveaways and supplements the food on offer using donations, including items provided by local businesses, like Kroger, Walmart and Panera. "Today, we received four pallets of food from MFB ... normally we receive 10 pallets, " he wrote in a social media post following the event. He would later explain the food provided consisted of shelf stable items and didn't include any dairy or fresh produce—both staples in past deliveries. But the issue isn't with the Mountaineer Food Bank problem—it's about funding. Among the recent cuts in federal spending was more than $1 billion for local food programs, including Local Food Purchase Assistance, which allows the purchase of locally-grown food for schools and pantry programs, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program. "We're working with Mountaineer Food Bank. They are pulling their hair out trying to see how they can continue to meet the needs. They are the middle man trying to get food out and I feel horribly for them, " Bloom said. "We're really concerned how we're going to meet the needs of people in West Virginia." Bloom said the funding crisis was a main topic of discussion during a quarterly meeting of area pantries and feeding programs. He believes a significant portion of those pantries and programs won't exist this time next year if things continue on this trajectory. "This is a huge story and it's nationwide. I do not understand why DOGE would be cutting such a needed program. It's not redundant and it's not wasteful. It's helping people make it. Most of the people who come to our programs are working. They have jobs but prices have gone up and they're having to make difficult decisions, " Bloom said. "The first couple times people come through, they're embarrassed, but it becomes a necessity." One of the ideas being discussed is a coordinated effort to work with restaurants, event centers and stores to be able to retrieve prepared food—or food aging off of store shelves—and get it to a central location to be distributed quickly. "Again, that will take time and energy, and probably a little bit of funding to get organized, but it may be something we need to look at. We're going to have to think out of the box because the need continues to be more and more, " Bloom said. "The crisis is here." The Dominion Post reached out to representatives of the Mountaineer Food Bank, but did not hear back in time for this report.
