Brigade seeks helpers

On Saturday, the Newton County Armory will be transformed into a grocery store as the 21st annual Newton County Food Basket Brigade distribution day will commence.

In order for this feat to occur, brigade organizers are asking for some help.

“We are needing some volunteers,” said Robert Allen, the brigade’s president. “We need volunteers on Friday and on Saturday.”

For Friday’s stage, Allen is asking volunteers to come into the armory at 1:30 p.m., where they will be getting the outbound food orders ready to send out.

“We are going to do the outbound area to get the food ready for Granby, Diamond and Fairview,” Allen said. “Representatives will come by and pick it up in bulk and take it back to their area.
There they will divide it up and deliver the baskets to the recipients.”

Starting at 6:45 a.m. Saturday, volunteers are needed to help out with preparing the food for the homebound.

“We have 1,148 families that will receive food this year,” Allen said. “We will have our first recipients come through the armory at 8:30 a.m. Around 75-80 people will come through every 30 minutes.”

When the recipients signed up for the food a while back, they were given a designated time to come in. As they enter the armory Saturday, they will be given a number signifying how many are in their family. That number helps inform the volunteers handing out the food how much food to put in the shopping carts for the recipients.

In late November, organizers announced the initial goal, set at 100,000 pounds of food to serve 1,100 families.

Allen said there were a couple of reasons for the upswing in the number of applicants.

 “I think that the main thing is that there were a lot of people affected by the May 10 tornado,” he said. “Then the layoffs (in the area). People are anticipating being laid off or already laid off.”

In 2007, food baskets (actually several sacks of food) were distributed to 907 families representing more than 3,400 people. That marked the largest distribution in the history of the food basket brigade. Contributions included nearly $30,000 in cash, used to help purchase food.
Leftover food and cash was given to the Neosho Help Center for distribution to clients in 2008.
Last Saturday, countless volunteers canvassed the neighborhoods collecting food in the door-to-door solicitation. And that helped.

Allen emphasized that with that (and other donations) the goal of the 100,000 pounds of food, was met.

“We just cant emphasize enough that the support that we have gotten from the community, schools and businesses and individuals on the monetary and the successful city wide pickup,” Allen said.

Any money, which was donated, also helps to purchase food.

“As far as our monetary goal, we are over $30,000,” said Allen.

And there is still time to donate.

“We will take anything until Thursday,” said Allen. “Money and food can be taken to the armory.”

The goal of the brigade is to provide food for a traditional Christmas dinner plus basic staples to last up to two weeks for Newton County residents certified as low income, disadvantaged, disabled and/or elderly in need of assistance. Virtually all individuals and families certified to receive food through the Food Basket Brigade are also receiving assistance from DFS, Economic Security Corporation, the Neosho Crosslines, the Help Center and other relief agencies during the brigade.

The basic premise of the basket brigade is that in this land of plenty, nobody should have to go hungry at Christmas.

The food basket brigade began in 1988. Since its beginning, the brigade has collected and distributed more than 2 million pounds of food.