United Food Bank of PC continues agenda with donation
For years the United Food Bank and Services of Plant City has received help from its partners to continue its quest in feeding the community and the Plant City Elks Lodge #1727 recently made a contribution toward those efforts.
The local elks lodge presented a $7,000 check to the food bank on March 17.
Shelly Carroll is the grant coordinator for Lodge #1727 and was present that evening to hand over the much-needed donation.
“A lot of that need has come about in the last couple of years,” she said. “We do have the opportunity because of our organization to provide grants to our local community. Due to all of the food insecurity, we were encouraged to partner with other organizations that have the capability of distributing food, so that’s why we’ve been focusing our efforts on the food bank.”
The food bank has three large nutritional outreach programs for children and the Elks Lodge has been active in supporting these fundraisers.
And the fact that there are Elks Lodge members who also volunteer at the food bank helps to keep the organization informed about what contributions are needed.
Mary Heysek is the director of the United Food Bank in Plant City, a position she has held for the last six years.
She came to the Elks Lodge on behalf of the food bank to accept the donation.
“They’re pretty involved,” she said. “They do fundraisers for us as far as food drives. It’s magnificent because they come together as not just a community for their organization. They’re very community-involved and we’re not the only organization that benefits from their efforts.”
The charitable contribution helps the food bank to collect a substantial amount of food as well as feeding a substantial amount of people.
“We serve about 10,000 to 11,000 people every month,” Heysek said. “Last year we distributed 4 million pounds of food.”
It’s an accomplishment that prevents the alternative of having to turn people away, which is emotionally difficult, she said.
In recent weeks the food bank has had an uptick in the number of recipients due to inflation and the rise in gas prices.
It’s not uncommon for families to sign up after finding out that the food bank provides meals for their kids through its partnership with schools.
The local lodge works with organizations to provide not only food, but things such as furniture to help people accommodate their homes.
In December, Lodge #1727 applied for a grant from its national organization and was allocated $3,500.The state level then matched it with an additional $3,500, accumulating the $7,000.
In past years, the most grant money that any lodge could receive was $22,500, but now the limit has been raised to $25,000.
“I’m confident that we’ll be able to secure those grant funds because this will be the fourth year in a row that we’ve been able to obtain all of the grants we were eligible for,” Carroll said.
Recently the lodge had done a project with the local Boys and Girls Club, providing $2,000 of its own funds.
And the lodge offers youth sport competitions with the Hoop Shoot and Soccer Shoot programs.
It also distributes $6,000 toward scholarships which is split between Durant, Strawberry Crest, and Plant City high schools.
And for the recent St. Patrick’s Day meeting, lodge members played a heads or tails game, which raised $1,100 for scholarships.
Lodge #1727 and other partners provide the additional hands needed to help the United Food Bank and Services of Plant City continue its mission.
“Without our volunteers and the community support, there’s no way we could meet the needs,” Heysek said.
