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Calhoun County agency, Mountaineer Food Bank team up to help families

Tabitha Mays from Mountaineer Food Bank poses with Noah Cook and Tina Persinger as they commemorate the Calhoun County Family Resource Network summer feeding program. The Calhoun County FRN continues to help tackle food insecurity in the county. (Photo Provided)

GRANTSVILLE — To help combat food insecurity, the Calhoun County Family Resource Network offers its services and help to those who may be struggling.

Friday, the Calhoun County FRN in partnership with Mountaineer Food Bank hosted a mobile food pantry which fed about 225 families in the span of one hour.

According to FRN Director Tina Persinger, the amount of families who need assistance has tripled within the past few years, especially due to COVID-19. Several families reached out for assistance for the first time because of their struggles with being laid off or decreased hours.

“Calhoun is a lower income family community anyways (but) it has affected all income levels,” Persinger said. “A lot of people are laid off or their company is shut down for a few weeks to deep clean. We think that only low income families go to food pantries but right now people do come into food pantries, they do qualify but they aren’t used to being in that situation.”

To help establish a sense of ownership, the FRN food pantry is set up so that people can shop for the items they need.

With the increased need, Persinger said she and her 11 volunteers are blessed to be able to help the community.

“This has just been a blessing to us,” she said.

The FRN also feeds families through its summer meal program which typically takes place during the summer months but state funding allowed for the program to continue. Through the summer feeding program, families receive five meals once per week.

“The state has approved for us to extend summer feeding through June and hopefully COVID will be under control so we can cook the meals for the kids,” Persinger said.

Silver Linings food boxes are given to seniors 65 and older and include 15 meals per month.

“They come pre-boxed from Mountaineer Food Bank. As long as we still have things, we add a package of frozen meat,” Persinger said.

Since the pandemic started last March, Persinger said she and her staff worked hard to come up with a plan to make sure people in the county had what they needed.

“My crew has worked really hard since March when the shutdown first happened. We started serving food the first week,” she said. “We don’t want this food insecurity, we have enough health issues going on anyways.”

The next mobile food pantry will be March 19 at 11 a.m. in the Calhoun Banks drive through lot.

Pre-registration is not required. For more information on the services at Calhoun FRN, contact 304-354-7177.

Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.

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