Starkville Strong braves the cold to help those in need
Brown paper bags filled with groceries and necessities on top of a fold-up table ready for distribution was the sight in town on Saturday.
During the afternoon on Saturday, members of the Starkville Strong team sat in the parking lot across from First United Methodist Church on Wilson Street giving food and necessity bags to those in need in the com
munity.
You will not find a lot of people who will not describe Saturday as a chilly day, but that did not bother the members of Starkville Strong who participated in the pantry drive-by pick up. Brandi Duncan Herrington is in charge of Starkville Strong, and she said that despite the cold weather, there are people in the community who need help.
“It doesn’t matter what the temperature is outside, people in our community still need the help with food and hygiene items,” said Herrington. “For us to be out in the cold for 30 to 45 minutes is enough motivation to help other people to get what they need.”
Herrington stated that the mission at Starkville Strong is to provide support and meet the needs of the community through open minds and open arms.
“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 said that Saturday was a big success due to the increased number of volunteer help from donations during the holiday season and participation from people picking up bags.
“On both ends of the spectrum, we had more volunteers come this time and help assemble the sack lunches and help load everything up to bring over here, and then we had a great turnout of people coming for the drive-through,” said Herrington. “We ended up bagging the food for them and handing it to them so we could keep numbers of people next to each other down. We had more volunteers this time and more participants as well.”
Herrington also said that this is something that her Starkville Strong team would like to make a habit of each month.
“We’re aiming to always do something like this at least once a month. If we can continue to get participation from volunteers, because people donating their time is important because it takes hands to make this all happen,” said Herrington. “As often as we can do it all depends on participation from volunteers and the amount of donations we receive.”