As the agency has experienced a 32 percent increase in families served, Grayson County Alliance (GCA) has released its food distribution schedule for the month of May.
GCA, as anticipated, has experienced a significant increase in families the agency serves as the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold in the community, resulting in mass worker layoffs and furloughs.
GCA Executive Director Debbie Childress said the increased number of families served, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, is a continuation of the growth the agency experienced in 2019.
“We were averaging 35 new households a month (in 2019), which was bringing our totals each month to around 785 families (1,570 individuals) served,” she said. “In March of this year we served 1,036 (about 2,072 individuals) families with 158 of those new; new to us means they’ve either never been to Food Pantry or it has been more than a year. We had one day in March where we served 236 families … we are a good kind of tired.”
With one more distribution day (today, Tuesday, April 28) in April, Childress said GCA has served 967 families, with 111 of those families new to the food pantry. Childress noted that she is anticipating over 100 people to take advantage of Tuesday’s distribution based “on calls and those who came last month.”
While the number of Grayson County families GCA served in April increased by at least 32 percent from last year, Childress thinks there are more food insecure families in the community who are not yet taking advantage of GCA’s services.
“I believe there are more families that need our support and have other barriers to getting services,” Childress said. “We can take an application over the phone or in the drive-thru any day that we are open.”
“Our sole focus right now is to feed our community,” she added. “We can’t give everything a family needs for the month, but we can give enough support, so families won’t be hungry. We can help ease the burden, and we simply want to be good neighbors. The Alliance has been here for 19 years and we are not going anywhere.”
During the month of May, GCA will continue to serve Grayson County residents via drive-thru on Tuesdays between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and Thursdays between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
GCA is located at 2203 Brandenburg Road, in Leitchfield.
Grayson County Alliance continues to operate as a free VITA tax site (more information below), as the tax filing deadline has been extended to July 15.
(Photo: GCA Exec. Dir. Debbie Childress)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
