Assess to Food – Food Pantry

The need for food in low income communities is a major issue because so many of our children and families are living in poverty. We2gether and Drew United for Progress partnered to apply to the Mississippi Food Network to apply for a food pantry for the community. We were successful and the food pantry opened in Drew in May 2014.  Volunteers from the community pick up the food from a delivery point 45 miles away from Drew, and community volunteers operate the pantry. Mississippi Food Network provides food once a month. We are able to issue approximately three days’ worth of food to community residents from that source.

We recognized early on that the food pantry was not receiving very many fresh fruits and vegetables from the Mississippi Food Network.  We partnered with the Mississippi Food Network to collaborate with the Wal-Mart in Cleveland, MS to provide food, including fresh fruit, vegetables, and other perishables to the food pantry. Wal-Mart provides food three times a week. The food pantry is open monthly to issue food from Mississippi Food Network. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and other perishables from Wal-Mart are issued as it comes in three times a week.

We are serving approximately 550 families and 1700 individuals each month through the food pantry