Helping Hands

Local Food Pantries Do More Than Feed the Hungry

Story by Jen Calhoun

Every Friday during the school year, United Help of Waskom sends bags of food to the Waskom Independent School District. From there, teachers and school staff identify students who might need something to eat over the weekend.

The bags are small, containing anywhere from 5 to 7 items. But their impact could be great to a child whose meals primarily come from a school cafeteria.

“In 2023, we were doing about 22 of these kid packs a week, or 90 a month,” says Anita Nolan, United Help of Waskom’s treasurer. “The next year, we averaged about 28 a week, or 114 a month.”

The food bags are just 1 of the many ways United Help of Waskom and other food pantries are helping ease food insecurity in the region. Whether they’re giving away boxes of food to families every month or providing Christmas and Thanksgiving meals, these groups have taken on a task that can feel overwhelming at times.

Growing Together

Nolan has been volunteering at the food pantry for a few years now, and she’s seen an increase in the organization’s output. But she can’t say for sure if the need has grown or if people are simply more aware now that the food pantry exists. “I was a little bit shocked that people in our community did not know we had a food pantry,” Nolan says. “We’ve been working to reach out to the community and get our name out there.”

As its name recognition grows, so does the pantry’s expenses and workload. But Nolan and her fellow pantry staffers are happy to help. “On average, we provided assistance to about 85 families a month in 2023,” Nolan says. “That grew by about 22% this year. Now, we’re assisting 110 households a month. We’ve also helped 40 people with clothing items this year compared to around 15 last year.”

United Help of Waskom was formed by merging a few local organizations, including the Women’s Auxiliary of Waskom and Operation Help. The consolidation allowed churches and individuals to focus all their efforts and resources on a single group with a singular purpose–– ending hunger in Waskom.

Today, the organization increasingly relies on technology for everything from social media marketing to collecting donations.

United Help of Waskom recently started collecting donations via Venmo and PayPal. “We know a lot of people don’t carry cash or even use checkbooks anymore,” Nolan says. “So, we’re adding these types of services to create more avenues to donate.”

More Than Food

When a family or individual is hungry, they generally have other needs, too, says Deanna Dean, secretary at Henderson Food Pantry.

“We’ll help people whose homes burn down, which happens more often than you’d think in the winter months,” she says. “Sometimes, we’ll have furniture and dishes and plates and household items, along with clothes and shoes. All these things are items donated by the community to our PALs Resale Shop.”

During the Christmas season, the organization offers toys for children along with food boxes. Sometimes local businesses also donate turkeys or hams the group can add, as well. “We can also provide strollers and car seats for expectant mothers,” Dean says. “And if families are out of formula or diapers, we can give them those, too.”

In addition to its regular food boxes and clothing giveaways, United Help of Waskom gives out Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter food boxes. It also offers additional help in emergency situations.

“They might not have food to make it until payday, or they might be new here and they’re not signed up, or maybe their circumstances changed quickly for the worse,” Nolan says. “We’ll meet them in the middle of the week and get them a food box.

“Harrison County, in general, has a pretty high poverty rate,” she adds. “The cost of groceries, the cost of living has gone up considerably, so I know our community is hurting.”