AFUMC Food Pantry Committee is Keeping BUSY!!!

Look at what we have coming up...

On July 31 we will staff the Sack Saturday at the Ankeny Hy-Vee from 10 AM to 2 PM.  We will collect cash donations and sell $5.00 sacks of food for donations in kind.  All of the donations go to the DMARC Food Pantry in Des Moines. 

On August 14 we will staff the Market to Pantry program at the Des Moines Farmers Market.  We will collect the surplus and unsold fruits and vegetables from vendors at the end of the market day.  Then we will load the produce into the DMARC Food Pantry truck and deliver it back to the DMARC refrigerated warehouse.  There we will sort the produce and package it into family size servings.  On the following Monday, the produce will be delivered to the 10 metro food pantries which are served by the DMARC Food Pantry.  All of the DMARC food is free to the local food pantries.

We are preparing for the "Sack Sunday" at AFUMC.  A week prior to that Sunday we hand out orange plastic sacks at each of the seven church services and put in each sack a printed list of needed food items.  Then on "Sack Sunday" we collect the donations and deliver them to DMARC Food Warehouse the following morning. 

We recently put DMARC Food Pantry red barrels in Faith Chapel and CLC.  The uptown church has two red barrels which are in the hallways of the church.  The third Sunday of the month is Food Pantry Sunday at all three locations.  We collect the food on the following Monday and deliver it to the DMARC Food Warehouse in Des Moines.

Look at what we've accomplished this summer....

During Vacation Bible School each year, the committee works with the children to discuss the importance of donating food to help hungry children.  We collect cans of food from the VBS kids.  Then on the last day of VBS we display the donated cans of food during the commencement program.  The next day all of the donated cans of food are delivered to the DMARC Food Warehouse. 

For two weeks in July of 2010 an Ankeny Food Pantry staff member was on vacation.  In the absence of that person, we helped out by picking up the stale bakery items from the Ankeny Hy-Vee and Drugtown for delivery to the Ankeny Food Pantry.  The daily loads ranged from 500 to 750 baked items (breads, donuts, pies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, etc.).  We will continue to be available for bread runs when a food pantry employee is out of the office. 

In early July of 2010, committee members started to go with an Ankeny Food Pantry employee once a week to pick up loads of food from the DMARC Food Pantry on Mondays and the Food Bank of Iowa on Thursdays.   Each week the volunteers load and unload food from the back of pickup trucks.  Then they put the boxes on 4 wheel dollies and roll along hallways and up an elevator to the Food Pantry which is on the third floor of the Nevlyn School Building.  Each week the volunteers move about 50 boxes of food that weigh about 1800 pounds. 

We are currently on call with several local fruit and vegetable sellers in the metro area.  When called, we go to the vendor's location at the end of the day and pick up any surplus sweet corn or onions or tomatoes or green beans.  Then we deliver that produce to the Ankeny Food Pantry that same afternoon.  The Ankeny Food Pantry then gives that produce free of charge to Ankeny residents at 9:30 AM the following day. 

Once a quarter the Food Pantry Committee is host to the Sunday Morning Coffee and Cookies Fellowship at the downtown church.  All of the donations given by the church members for the coffee and cookies goes to the DMARC Food Pantry.

Are you interested in being part of this team?  If so, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .