Alcona Pop-Up pantries reaching entire community
LINCOLN, Mich. — The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families in several ways, with food insecurity being one of them.
The Alcona County Commission on Aging, with their Food Bank of Lincoln program, have donated over $1.5 million worth of food at their pop-up food pantries this year. The pantries started last March, and they have been held regularly since then.
“We’ve never stopped,” said ACCOA Executive Director Lenny Avery. “We’ve given over $1.5 million dollars worth of food to our community.”
At certain points during the pandemic, these pantries were serving over 700 families at nine different sites. Avery and volunteers don’t ask questions to those picking up food, as it is already a humbling experience just being there.
“We just want to provide help,” Avery said. “We don’t ask for people to provide us ID, we don’t ask for people to provide us their income or wealth status. Just be a living, breathing human being and we’re able to provide help.”
Because of this, people can get the help they need while keeping their pride. Avery says a lot of people who come have never needed to be in a food pantry line before.
“We’re all in this together,” Avery said. “Don’t look at this as a handout.”
At 4 p.m. volunteers start to serve the boxes of food they’ve assembled to the community. However, some cars are in line before 1 p.m.
The next pop-up pantry is on Wednesday, April 28. Donations are welcome at https://alconaseniors.org/, and anyone in need of food in Alcona County can call 989-334-FOOD.
