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You are here: Home / FEATURED STORY / Feeding the Hungry in East Ridge

Feeding the Hungry in East Ridge

September 5, 2019 By Dick Cook Leave a Comment

Volunteers at the East Ridge Community Food Pantry are led in prayer by Danny McDowell on Wednesday afternoon, prior to helping 150 hungry area families.

The East Ridge Community Food Pantry is desperately in need of volunteers to help feed hungry families in our area.

On Wednesday, this reporter went to East Ridge Methodist Church on Prater Road where the food pantry operates to get a first-hand look at the work being done.

Danny McDowell, a 70-year-old retired plumber with the school system, has been the Director of the food pantry for eight months. He said that the pantry is packing boxes of food – which includes meat and bread donated by area grocery stores – for about 150 families.

“Our biggest problem with the pantry is finding folks to physically get their hands dirty and do the work,” McDowell said.

A donation box sits in the back of a pickup truck at East Ridge Methodist Church on Prater Road. Those in need are served the first and third Wednesday of each month by the East Ridge Community Food Pantry.

Currently about 25 big-hearted people are volunteering at the pantry. On the first and third Wednesday of each month from 2 to 5 p.m., the volunteers help facilitate getting boxes of food into the hands of the needy.

That’s the end result of work that is done throughout the week, McDowell said. Through the week, people are needed to go to the Publix in the Hamilton Place area to pick up 100 pounds of meat and 100 to 150 pounds of bread and pastries just before the products go out of date. The donations, which are coordinated through the Chattanooga Food Bank, are then brought back to the pantry to be either placed in the freezer or otherwise stored.

McDowell explained that he just lost a husband and wife team who had volunteered for some time.

“The man was 87-years-old and his wife was 84,” McDowell said. “They came to me crying saying that the really wanted to continue, but they just couldn’t physically do it anymore.”

McDowell said he needs people to “step up” and make a commitment of one day a week for a couple hours to go pick up food from the grocery stores. He said an SUV or a pickup truck would be needed to haul the 10 to 12 boxes food that the stores are donating.

McDowell said the funding for the pantry comes through its own efforts at East Ridge churches. The churches helping out are East Ridge Methodist, Jones Memorial, Full Gospel Korean Church, Ridgeline Church, and Action Church. The food pantry also accepts donations on line through its Facebook page.

Each box of food for the less fortunate contains staples such as pasta, peanut butter, cereal, and canned meats, fruits and vegetables. Occasionally, crackers and chips are provided by the food bank. The meat and bread comes from the donations made by Publix.

Volunteers with the East Ridge Community Food Pantry take boxes of food for those in need from the auditorium of East Ridge Methodist to awaiting cars in the parking lot.

McDowell said the East Ridge Community Food Bank is in the running to have food donated twice a week from Aldi at Hamilton Place. The current problem is having the manpower committed to retrieve the donations.

“What this would mean is that the folks we serve would get a larger selection of protein for their diets,” he said. “There would be more chicken, burgers and pork items.”

McDowell said the pantry asks few questions of those they serve. One must have a driver’s license or social security card for identification purposes. This requirement by the federal government and the Chattanooga Food Bank is for “accountability” to get an idea of who the food pantry is serving.

The spectrum of the hungry is “across the board,” McDowell said. The pantry serves single mothers, working people who find it difficult at this time of year to buy school supplies and put food on the table, and grandparents who have extended families living with them.

If you want to help, McDowell said to reach out to him on the Facebook page. Better yet, make a phone call to Jones Memorial (423-624-6073) tell the church secretary you are interested in helping and she will get you in touch with McDowell.

“Finding folks to get involved is extremely hard,” he said.

Filed Under: FEATURED STORY, News, SLIDER

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.

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