Shelves and coolers at the Food Pantry, on the northeast corner of Broadway and Washington, are comfortably full today. That gives the Rev. Phil Honeycutt, its director, the satisfaction of being able to help those in need without fear of having to scramble for commodities.
There was a time when it was hand-to-mouth, Honeycutt said, when he often didn’t know from one month to the next whether he’d be able to meet needs.
“Not anymore,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “People are generous and we have a lot of support.
“The Lord has blessed us,” and those that the Pantry, open since fall 2005, helps.
Donors of both food and cash drop by now and again to see if there is anything that’s needed. Iola letter carriers bring in about 2,500 pounds of food from their one-day-a-year collection. With money donated, Honeycutt is able to make purchases for a dime on the dollar or less through the Kansas Food Bank in Wichita.
“I can get a case of 18 packages of lunch meat for $7,” he said, noting that in supermarkets some single packages of prepared sandwich meat cost that much. And how about a case of hot-dogs for $5?
“Around the holidays school kids and others collect food for us,” he said.
So, Honeycutt said in his rhapsody, acquisition of food no longer is a headache.
“Now, don’t get me wrong,” he added, “we need people to continue to be generous.”
WHILE FOOD to help the needy is the general assumption people make when the Food Pantry is mentioned, Honeycutt said it’s much more.
“We’re here to provide moral and spiritual support for people,” he said. “To pray with them, to encourage them, to give them someone to talk to when they have problems.”
Counseling is no small part of the program.
Some, he said, find themselves in desperate circumstances because they have depended on “the system” — welfare and food stamps — for so long that they have gotten caught up and find it difficult to take care of themselves when cuts or changes occur.
“When they come in and they say they don’t have anything (because of the cuts), I try to help them understand that they have to do things for themselves, find a job, maybe go back to school. They also have to adjust and learn to live within their means.
“Some people are on disability, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but they have to realize that being in that situation has limits and they have to make some effort on their own to take care of themselves,” he said.
On the average, the pantry serves 125 to 150 people a month, with most coming in the first and last weeks of the month, which wraps their needs around when food stamps are issued.
“That’s another thing we try to help people to understand, that they need to shop for food several times a month, and not buy all they can when their food stamps arrive,” he said. “If you have a lot of food, you’re probably going to eat it up and not have anything left at the end of the month.
“It’s better to shop once a week,” he observed.
IF HARD times have made a difference in dependency on the Pantry, it is that people are coming more often than its general rules permit.
“We’re really here to meet emergency needs, from loss of a job, medical circumstances” or some other trying financial situation, Honeycutt said, not as an ongoing source of food.
“When people come in they fill out an application and we visit,” he said, to determine their financial situation.
Honeycutt also tries to help people develop good budgeting habits with the money or other resources, such as food stamps, that they have. Consequently, he noted, they have money to provide for their families over a period of time, not just a week or two.
When children are involved, he often is a little less stringent about looking too closely at qualifications.
However, “I have had to get tough on some people who were coming in too often,” and making the Pantry a repeat shopping experience rather than using its resources for emergencies.
“Most of the people we help, though, are good people who have just had some problems,” he said.
TYPICALLY, a family of four receives four boxes of food that includes canned vegetables, cooking supplies, potatoes, even cake mixes and cookies. In addition, chicken, hamburger, tuna, macaroni, cheese and sometimes a beef roast is provided.
“We get about 1,500 packages of deer meat each year” processed in Yates Center from hunters’ donations, Honeycutt said. “We have about half of what they got last fall left, and need to give it out. Hunting season will be here again before long.”
The Pantry is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.
No utility assistance is available during the summer, but will be for winter heating bills with allocations “depending on how much money we have,” Honeycutt said.
