ASHLAND - Thanks to the generosity of Boyer's Food Markets, local residents who use the Ashland food pantry will get extra help in obtaining food.
The food pantry received a donation of Boyer's gift cards on Friday, totaling $2,300, as part of an annual program by the supermarket chain to help food pantries throughout the area.
The community food pantry in Ashland is operated by the Ashland Area Ministerium and is located in Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Brian Clemson, manager of the Ashland Boyer's, presented 92 gift cards worth $25 each to the Rev. Dana Heckman-Beil, pastor of Good Shepherd, and Pamela Snyder, who is the community food pantry coordinator. The donation was up from last year when $1,500 in gift cards were presented. Thomas Boyer, representing Boyer's corporate office, and Lyle Porter, assistant manager, also were on hand for the presentation.
Clemson said Boyer's matches donations from customers in each store during a one-week period before Thanksgiving.
"What we did was accept donations of $1 at the registers and then as a company we matched every dollar we receive," Clemson said. "Between the customers and the store, we donated $2,300 to the food bank."
"That's wonderful. It's more than last year," Heckman-Beil said. "We have a community of givers."
"This is so vital. It's very important, especially to the people who receive the cards," Snyder said.
Heckman-Beil said the gift cards will be distributed in the near future.
"The company will donate $27,900 throughout all stores," Porter said. "We received $13,924 from customers alone during that week and when we matched it, it became $27,900. And what it donated and matched in each store is then donated to the food pantry in the local community. For one week, that was incredible."
There are 17 stores in the Boyer's supermarket chain.
"I know that every time I went to the register, I was asked if I wanted to donate and I did since I know you match it," Snyder said to Clemson.
On Saturday during the Shepherd's Table Thanksgiving dinner event, Heckman-Beil opened the pantry to explain how the food is distributed each month from the community side. Another food bank with food provided from federal government surplus programs is located in another room in the church.
"We need to keep them separate because the government keeps inventory, which means we can't mix the food," Heckman-Beil said. "When we distribute the food, we fill a bag with two veggies, two soups, one sauce, one pasta, one meat, one cereal, one fruit and one beans. The volunteers put the bags on the table the day before, and they're all ready to go."
She said a request has been made to a retail corporation to help enlarge the food storage area and she hopes the project will be approved. For now, the current food pantry will do.
"For now we work out of this room and it works," Heckman-Beil said.