In one door, out the other is how Dick Weber describes the Father's House at Hope Community Church food bank.
At a new pantry in Roaring Spring, the pace might not be as fast but activity is beginning to pick up. The shelves are fully stocked and ready to help those who need it.
The churches that make up the Roaring Spring Ministerium opened a food bank this summer at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Roaring Spring for people who live in the borough and surrounding townships.
Article Photos
(Mirror photos by Patrick Waksmunski) Volunteer Sharon Snider of Roaring Spring stocks the shelves with donated food at the Roaring Spring Food Pantry.
For months, donations from a half-dozen local churches have been coming by the truckload.
"St. Luke's had a big open space, we spruced it up, got a local business to donate the shelves and the food started rolling in," said Mark Halliday, pastor of Bare Memorial Church of God. "We receive no government funding. It's strictly donations."
Prior to the opening of the Roaring Spring facility, those needing assistance had to travel to food banks in either Claysburg or Martinsburg.
"I had one woman tell me she just couldn't make the trip to Claysburg," Halliday said. "We want to help our own, help the people in our community. People may think there's not a need in a small town, but there is."
Halliday expects the food bank to help 40 to 60 households a month, possibly more "once word gets out."
It is open from 1 to 3 p.m. every Thursday and from 5 to 7 p.m. every other Thursday. Households in the 16673 zip code are eligible to receive goods once a month.
Each household will receive four bags of nonperishable, non-refrigerated items. One of each of the bags is filled with breakfast, lunch and dinner items, and a fourth contains a choice of miscellaneous items such as condiments or household supplies. Gift cards, valued at $10, also are provided for buying meat and produce.
"It won't feed a family for an entire month, but people are leaving with enough to supplement their groceries for a week or so," Halliday said.
The need for food pantries seems to be growing in Blair County, where the poverty rate was 12.3 percent in 2010, according to the Census Bureau's American Community survey.
First Baptist Church, 1209 17th St., opened its food pantry nine years ago by serving 25 families.
"Two years ago, 250 families came for groceries twice a month, said Pastor Tyler Pepper. Now, we average 360, sometimes 400 families."
"It's incredible the need that is out there," he said
About 99 percent of the families live in Altoona with a few traveling from Hollidaysburg and Bellwood.
"We have quite a few that walk," he said. "Most don't have vehicles."
First Baptist offers ministry during its food distribution days, but participation is optional.
"We offer a Bible study from 8:30 to 9 a.m. and about 120 people stay for the Bible study," Pepper said.
Counselors are available to sit and pray with individuals or talk with them about issues, he said.
The church also offers literature and a prayer request sign-up sheet.
"Through food, we share the love of God," Pepper said. "That's our desire and goal."
Weber said the Father's House at 11th Street and 16th Avenue in the lower Fairview section of Altoona, has grown from helping people within a two to three block radius of the facility to about a 10-block radius.
Here, too, the people often arrive on foot. Many of them walk the 10-blocks, Weber said.
The Father's House food bank is open three days a week: 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays, noon to 2 p.m. Thursdays and 9:15 a.m. to noon Saturdays.
Father's House receives some government aid from state and federal programs, but the vast majority of the items come from private donations.
"Out of the blue, we had a lady who had just relocated to the area bring us a whole bunch of stuff," Weber said. "She asked what we needed, we told her we try to give out health and beauty aids with each food order, and she brought us a whole load of that stuff. Ultimately, the Lord is in the middle of most of that. We just pass it out. It's a neat thing."
The increase in families seeking help can also been seen at the St. Vincent dePaul Assumption Chapel Food Pantry, 123 Adams Ave.
Don Belsey, who co-directs the food pantry, said, in the past five years, the number of clients has increased 151 percent.
He said when he and Tom Strunk, the other co-director, began operating the food bank in 2002, it served 235 families the eight days it was open a month. Now, it serves 1,100 families during that same period - 8 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"It is the largest food pantry in Blair County," Belsey said.
In addition to families, it supplies a number of other food pantries in the central Pennsylvania area and 12 outreach programs.
Calls for assistance also are on the rise at the American Rescue Workers food bank, particularly from one group of people, office manager Chrissy Martin said.
"A lot of the new ones are retired people," Martin said. "People on a fixed income used to be able to get by, but now everything is going up except their income. They just can't make ends meet."
The Hollidaysburg-based organization, which has interdenominational church services and provides other social services at its Mulberry Street location and the food bank on Scotch Valley Road, helps about 200 families in six zip codes with food, clothing and furniture.
The food bank is open 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday by appointment.
Martin said they have a variety of canned goods, produce, fresh and frozen dairy products, bread and pastries.
The biggest food items they "always need" are peanut butter and jelly and spaghetti sauce.
"If you didn't have a refrigerator or stove, and there are people out there in that situation, what would you buy? Peanut butter and jelly," Martin said. "We get a lot of spaghetti and pastas, but we hardly get any sauce. It's a simple, easy meal we can give out."
They always have a need for things like soap and toothpaste because these are items that cannot be purchased with food stamps.
"A bar of soap may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people. It is if you don't have one. For people whose expenditures exceed their income, there's not one extra dollar there to buy those types of things," Martin said.
