Wednesday’s editorial applauds the good work of the Grand Strand Regional Food Center in keeping the region’s underpriviliged fed this holiday season.
On a chilly Friday morning, the Rev. Charles Randall did some critical grocery shopping for the food pantry operated by St. Delight Community Outreach in Little River. He drove the church van to the Grand Strand Regional Food Center on South Broadway in Myrtle Beach. He returned to Little River with 1,251 pounds of mostly canned vegetables. On this shopping trip, bananas were available and he picked up a couple of boxes because the St. Delight pantry is open Fridays and the fruit would be immediately distributed. The bananas were priced to move quickly, as retail grocers might say, at 3 cents a pound.
Randall’s shopping included about 700 pounds of USDA food, which is distributed at no cost to agencies which qualify for the U.S. Department of Agriculture program, according to Roy Pridgen, manager of the Myrtle Beach center, one of three distribution centers of the Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston. The third distribution center is in Yemassee, serving the southernmost counties of the 10 in the Lowcountry Food Bank’s territory from North Carolina to Georgia. Overall, the operation distributed over 14 million pounds of food in 2009 and expects the number to be over 17 million pounds in 2010.
Randall says the pantry’s total outlay was $113 for the food. “I couldn’t run the pantry without Lowcountry.” He focuses on basic food, passing up soft drinks and so forth. The St. Delight pantry feeds over 300 families a month, he says. Like most other area food pantries, large and small, shelves were nearly bare a couple of weeks ago. Holiday food drives, such as the annual McDonald’s collection in several schools, could not happen soon enough. St. Delight will receive food in an early December collection by Lions, Optimist and Rotary clubs in Little River and North Myrtle Beach. On Tuesday, Randall was headed to Lowcountry as supplies were thinning.
The St. Delight pantry is one of over 60 nonprofits served by the Grand Strand Regional Food Center. Pridgen says all are approved agencies, nonprofits or attached to churches. Operators and volunteers are trained in safe and sanitary practices in handling food. “This center distributed 3 million pounds of food in 2009. We will exceed that this year.”
On a typical week, the center receives two large trucks of food from Lowcountry headquarters in Charleston. “We have our own refrigerated truck. We go to all seven Wal-Marts in the area three times a week.” Soon, the center will have food from an eighth Wal-Mart. The center also picks up food from Sam’s Club, Target and companies such as Pepsi Cola. The center will also pick up food from large collections.
Every Monday, the center sends by email or fax a list of food available. “They send an order, we have it ready.” Nonprofit representatives visit the center on appointments, four an hour. The center can handle 16 agencies a day. Pridgen says the center staff and agencies are looking forward to expanded freezer and refrigerated storage which will increase the volume of meat, produce and bakery goods.
Pridgen has been the center manager since April – a job that he says found him. He is a native of Myrtle Beach and worked in the travel and tourism industry. “I hate the thought of a child going to bed hungry,” he says. “It would be wonderful if we got to the place where we’re not needed.”
Food bank
Lowcountry Food Bank is one of 200 in the United States that make up Feeding America. Lowcountry serves 190,000 families, children and elderly through over 360 agencies in 10 counties. Every dollar donated equals 10 meals. To make a donation or for more information visit www.lowcountyfood bank.org
Lowcountry Food Bank
2864 Azalea Drive
Charleston, SC 29405
843-747-8146
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