When the Alliance Ministerial Association formed the task force to deal with poverty issues in our area, we had no idea the extent of food insecurity facing many of our citizens. We thought programs like SNAP and WIC, the NCAP Extra Helpings food pantry, and the occasional commodity distributions were meeting households’ needs for nutritional food. Then we heard stories from students whose only food over the weekend during the school year was from the Backpack Program.
On a trial basis, we began Community Table in the Park in July of 2017, anticipating feeding mostly children who were not receiving free lunches at the school over the summer. Surprise! The need was for meals for older people; people who said they could only afford to eat once a day, so the meals we were providing made all the difference for them. This spurred us to make Community Table a year-round fixture in our community, with meals served daily, Monday through Thursday, at the Masonic Center.
When COVID hit in 2020, the business shut-downs affected so many people in our area and throughout the country. The federal government offered a variety of programs to help citizens get through the crisis. We studied all the grants available and ensured that different agencies were applying, focusing especially on those related to feeding the hungry.
SNAP and WIC benefits were expanded. Schools shifted to online classes, but continued to offer lunches for families to pick up for their children. Community Table served 300 meals a day, delivered or picked up at the door. The Senior Center also moved to meal delivery for everyone.
Restaurants closed for a time, but the high-quality perishable food they required was already being produced. The USDA then started the Farmers to Families Food Boxes program. NCAP worked with CASH-WA to take advantage of this grant. In Alliance we saw weekly distributions where boxes of dairy, meat, and produce and milk were placed directly in people’s cars, first at the Catholic Church and then at St. John’s Lutheran Church.
After several months, the situation returned to normal. We have, however, expanded a lot of the programs that serve the food insecure.
We continue to have food pantries in Alliance and Hemingford. Hemingford’s is funded by a grant from Westco and Land O’ Lakes and is operated by the Hemingford Ministerial Council. NCAP manages the Extra Helpings Food Pantry in Alliance, and users are income verified.
WCHR manages the WIC program and coordinates the Commodity Supplemental Food Program for low-income seniors. Once every two months this food is distributed at Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance. A mobile food truck brings food for qualified households to the Senior Center four times a year.
The Senior Center, through the Department of Aging, serves about 70 meals a day. Although people are encouraged to eat at the center, around 45 are still delivered. There is a cost for these meals and for delivery.
The Community Table serves 40-60 meals a day Monday through Thursday, with a sack lunch given on Thursday for Friday’s lunch. There is no charge or income verification.
United Way of Western Nebraska obtained grant funding to provide Community Cares food boxes once a month after Farmers to Families ended. Normally Community Cares serves around 25 families. On October 4, United Way held a special food distribution, handing out 375 bags of food at the Masonic Center. Participants in the program got three reusable bags with one bag of fresh fruit and vegetables, one of perishable items, and the other is non-perishable items. United Way will bring this program to other Panhandle communities throughout October.