Local organization preparing to help those in need

This weekend, a local organization dedicated to serving the Starkville community will be out providing for those in need.

Starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday, the Starkville Strong team and volunteers will be set up on the parking lot across from First United Methodist Church on Wilson Street giving food and necessity bags to those in need in the community.

Brandi Duncan Herrington is in charge of Starkville

Strong, and she said that this is something that her organization has been doing for some time and it is all in an effort to serve the community.

“We’ve been doing this for a couple of months. We take items that are from the overflow pantry at Dunkington, and we take fresh produce, things that don’t normally get put into the pantry, we take over to the pantries that we’re responsible for. We have grocery sacks, and people of the community can stop by, grab a grocery sack and fill it with the items that they would like. We also offer them the opportunity to get a brown bag lunch that has resources in it for prescription cards, homeless shelters, and other pantries in town. We just get to know them, it’s a good opportunity for the community to come out and get to know the people in town who have needs so that we can humanize them and see them as real people and it’s just an effort to get the community together and to help each other.”

When asked how much of an impact to the community something like this could bring, Herrington answered saying that it is Starkville Strong’s main mission to help out and provide for the community.

“Our primary mission at Starkville Strong is to give security and meet the need in the community, because it’s dire need right now,” said Herrington. “So, the pantries do meet that need, but it doesn’t allow us to give things like sandwich meat, instead we give them frozen or cold food options that they don’t normally get in the pantry. Making sure that people have something to eat other than just canned food, healthier foods such as apples and bananas are important too, and so these pantry hours allow us to meet that need and to get involved with the community where we can all come together and do something for each other.”

Herrington also said it is not her effort or the effort her Starkville Strong team, but rather a combined community volunteer effort.

“People are really coming together in the community to work together more than I’ve ever seenbefore,” Herrington said.