Donations total to 19,200 pounds at Food Pantry
The Hamilton County Food Pantry had a wonderful turnout for the 37th annual Can Care-a-Van last Tuesday. With the help of volunteers, local businesses and the spotlight brought by TV news anchors Jon and Taryn Vanderford of CBS affiliate KOLN-KGIN of Lincoln, the food pantry restocked its shelves. Falling just short of its goal of collecting 20,000 pounds of food, the event brought in 19,200 pounds of nonperishable food for the pantry to distribute within the county.
Can Care-a-Van has been an annual event hosted by Channel 10/11 since 1987 with TV anchors and meteorologists traveling to communities within their coverage area to help local food pantries restock their shelves within a span of five days. This year, 15 communities participated in Can Care-a-Van alongside Aurora collecting a total of 176,296 pounds of food and other non-perishable items.
HCFP board member and spokesman Bruce Ramsour commented that Tuesday marked the 25th year of 10/11 stopping by Aurora and assisting the food pantry and its volunteers.
“What they are doing is promoting people to bring in the food donations and also money to help during the summer months which are traditionally kind of (lean) months for food pantries,” he explained.
Having opened the food pantry for donations at 8 a.m., a highlight for the volunteers during the morning early morning hours was seeing an ambulance come in from Hampton bringing more donations.
“We’ve had communities like Hampton who have their own drive and then bring it,” Ramsour said. “Their rescue unit came in full with a huge amount of food. That was one of those neat communities that work together to help fill our shelves.”
Hampton Fire & Rescue delivered 1,448 pounds of food. Emergency personnel from Giltner Fire & Rescue brought in 1,008 pounds and the Hordville Fire Department delivered 290 pounds from food drives held in those communities. The arrival donations from Aurora Mall, local organizations, businesses and churches as well as individual donors brought a buzz of excitement to the 30 volunteers who spent the day organizing and restocking shelves with the new items.
Food Pantry treasurer Judy Salmon said multiple cash donations were made to the pantry with each dollar being converted into two pounds of food.
“The people who bring cash really help us, because we would like things like hamburger when we buy Hamburger Helper,” Salmon explained.
During Can Care-a-Van, participating food pantries listed items marked as most needed for their shelves. Hamilton County listed canned fruit, meal soups, pasta sauce, peanut butter, cold cereal, pork and beans boxed macaroni and cheese and canned tuna or chicken. In addition to food, items such as laundry detergent and toilet paper are also needed.
“Sometimes when we run short, we get those from (Aurora) Mall and they give us pretty good deals,” Salmon stated. “The same way with the Meat Block, we get our hamburger from them and they give us a really nice price.”
An hour into Can Care-a-Van, the Vanderfords did a remote broadcast of their daily show, “Pure Nebraska,” to highlight the work of the volunteers and to invite locals to donate.
“The people are generous,” Ramsour said. “They want to help people who need that help. Our community is really going over and above to help people who are in need so we’re very blessed to have the people here and they have kind of camaraderie.”
The Vanderfords, who have been visiting Aurora during Can Care-a-Van for 14 years, shared the same sentiment of meeting with the community.
“We love coming to Aurora,” Taryn stated. “It’s a favorite of us, because there’s so many people that we see when we return every year, so they become good friends almost like family to us.”
“I think even people who come to donate, they actually look forward to doing it every year, because it’s so well run and the community is so caring that I think people kind of want to be a part of it,” Jon commented.
Seeing the compassion of the community was a highlight for co-chairs Judy Werth and Kathy Ramsour, who have been volunteering at the food pantry for eight years.
“They’re always nice and they’re always ready to donate to us,” Werth commented.
Kathy followed by stating, “It blew me away the first time we were here in 2016.”
“One thing I’m really excited about this year are the young people we had helping us,” Werth said. “I mean young — we’re talking a six year old — and they were really able to help. We really appreciate all the volunteers, but (especially) those new faces we see for the volunteers.”
“We always take donations, it doesn’t have to be for a special occasion or anything,” Werth said. “If they don’t want to buy the food, they can always mail us a check to the Hamilton County Food Pantry at P.O. Box 7 (in Aurora).”
Werth commented that the food pantry is always open to new volunteers and encouraged people to call if interested in helping with restocking or maintaining the facility.
For more information about donating or volunteering, call the pantry at (402) 694-6979.