Loaves & Fishes Press Release
On Saturday, Oct. 11, a fleet of motorcyclists will escort a tractor-trailer filled with donated food and personal care items to the Loaves & Fishes Pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center, 212 Gamble St.
More than 30 riders from Chapter 295 of the STAR Touring Organization will ride in wih the supplies, which the group earned through sponsorships, donations and entry fees from the recent IronAzz Ride. This 500-mile endurance ride earned $15,000 for Feed the Children, which demonstrates its appreciation by donating a truckload of supplies to the charity of the group’s choice.
Also known as the Lake Norman Star Riders, Star Chapter 295 chose to donate the 44 pallets of non-perishable items to the Loaves & Fishes Pantry. It’s the second year that Ada Jenkins has received a donation from Star Chapter 295.
ABOUT THE LOAVES & FISHES PANTRY
The pantry provides a week’s worth of groceries to families and individuals in need. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the Ada Jenkins Center is busy with shopping carts whizzing up and down the creaky wooden floors.
Back in the pantry, behind an old classroom door, volunteers load up shopping bags with groceries. Clients wait in the hall for their grocery bags in the order that they come in. Even on the days that the pantry is closed, volunteers work behind the scenes unloading the delivery truck that comes from Loaves & Fishes in Charlotte, stocking the pantry shelves, and keeping the food organized.
Clients may come to any of the 17 Loaves & Fishes Pantries every 60 days. The pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center serves nearly 790 families a month. Since January, the average number of individuals it serves has increased by 30 percent. The Loaves & Fishes Warehouse in Charlotte is the primary source of the pantry’s food; however, groceries are also donated by the Second Harvest Rescue Truck, civic organizations, churches,
families, school groups, and individuals.
OTHER SERVICES AT ADA JENKINS
The Loaves & Fishes Pantry is not the only service that the Ada Jenkins Center offers. It is a community center that provides the tools to help people improve their lives. The brick building with its signature red doors was constructed in 1937 and originally housed the Davidson School for Colored Children. Since the school closed in 1966, the site has evolved into a community resource with over 20 different programs.
The facility becomes a free medical clinic on Thursday nights and a dental clinic on two Fridays per month. On weekday afternoons, the After School Building is full of 60 elementary school children and their tutors doing homework and enrichment activities. On Monday nights, you’ll hear “uno, dos, tres” coming from the meeting room as the participants in the adult Spanish class practice their new skills. And on some mornings “one, two, three” can be heard from the ESL class taught by the Lake Norman YMCA. Other afternoons, those looking for a job meet to learn about important skills for the workplace. Even when the main hall is quiet, community members are continuously dropping by to talk with the social services workers, to pick up a donated and refurbished computer, or to look up job listings.
WANT TO VOLUNTEER?
The mission of the Ada Jenkins Center is to enable community members to better their own situations. The interrelatedness of many economic issues is reflected in the effort to bring multiple services together under one roof. To be able to offer so many services,
the Center depends on its volunteers. If you would like to volunteer in the pantry, food baggers are particularly needed the second Wednesday of every month from 12:30-3:30 pm and the forth Friday of every month from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Also, Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., volunteers are needed to stock the pantry. Call 704-896-0471 ext. 105.
Here’s a related bit of news from Sue Bruce at Loaves & Fishes, who says local donations to its food pantries are coming at critical time:
On Saturday, October 4, Girl Scout Troops in Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson filled a tractor trailer truck with 13,795 lbs. of food for Loaves & Fishes. Earlier in the week, troops had gone door-to-door leaving bags for residents to fill with “A Can if You Can” of non-perishable food items. The scouts returned to collect the bags on the morning of October 4, taking the food to Huntersville United Methodist Church where it was weighed and sorted.
Of the 13,795 lbs. collected, 4,915 lbs. were taken directly into the Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry located at Huntersville United Methodist, one of the 17 pantries operated by Loaves & Fishes in Mecklenburg County.
The drive could not have come at a better time. September 2008 saw an increase of 33 percent in the number of people fed by Loaves & Fishes compared to September 2007. The food collected by the Girl Scouts will help feed hungry people well into the busy winter months. In addition to the pantry at Huntersville United Methodist Church, Loaves & Fishes also operates a North Mecklenburg food pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson.
The drive was led by Belinda West, Meck 1 District Manager for the Girl Scout’s Hornets Nest Council and Food Drive co-chairs Missy Parker and Shelley Garrett.