When the National Honor Society at Miami High School learned that the Antioch Daily Bread Food Pantry in Truckton, Colorado, was facing a cash shortfall, the students decided to sell holiday gifts. They raised $562 ó almost tripling their original goal.Norma Houghton, president of the Miami High School National Honor Society, learned about the pantry’s needs while volunteering her own time at the pantry. ìAt NHS, we love to do community events,î Houghton said. ìWe don’t raise money to do our own things for the club. I knew last year the pantry lost an outside grant and were short money, so I suggested we do our Yankee Candle fundraiser for here.îThe club enthusiastically embraced the idea, Houghton said. The members knew the pantry was vital to helping many of the rural community’s families meet their food needs. Several of the members’ families have been clients of the food pantry at some point. ìWe sold quite a bit of Yankee Candle gifts, and our 40 percent share of the revenue came out to $562,î Houghton said. ìI was very surprised. I was expecting $200 maybe. But then everyone worked hard to sell a whole bunch for this. It was awesome.îìHonor society is the first outside group that I know of that has donated funds directly to the pantry in at least four years,î said Aleta Fields, director of the pantry. ìOur funds have mainly come from the church, but with the economic situation, when the church funds go down; the pantry funds go down. We get about $100 a month from the church, and it costs $400 to $500 a month to just buy the food ñ- not including gas and volunteers with their own trucks and trailers. But we manage to stretch that like crazy. Otherwise, as far as money, we’re on our own.îìMiami-Yoder and Edison schools always do food drives for us, and the post office has boxes for us,î said Debra Brinkman, pantry volunteer, who has been working at the pantry with her family for years. However, the cash needed to run a pantry are often overlooked. ìFor example, just last night our truck we use to haul the food went down,î Brinkman said.ìLast year, we served over 200 families,î Fields said. ìWe ask if the families are in Miami-Yoder or Edison school districts, but we serve families from Simla, Ellicott, Hanover ó all over a wide area out here.îThe Daily Bread Pantry only takes the most basic identifying information to keep track of client numbers and family size. ìOur pantry does not ask for financial information, rather only how many people are in the household, and Care and Share needs to know the ages,î Fields said.If a family might otherwise have money for groceries but are temporarily hit with an emergency medical debt, the Daily Bread team sees it as a win if they are able to use the pantry’s resources to lower their grocery bill to pay off that debt, Fields said. At other pantries or charities, that hypothetical family may not qualify because of their base income. ìWe’re in one of the most impoverished areas in El Paso County,î Fields said. ìWe know we have a lot of low income families who just need a little extra help.îThe number of area families that use or have used the pantry for brief times has created a sense of community ownership. Previous clients are now the pantry’s most active volunteers.ìSome of our volunteers are connected to the church, but many are people who we have helped in the past who want to give back, and that’s how they can do it,î Fields said.
