After giving away food boxes full of fresh produce, meat and dairy products for more than a year, the Greenwood Community Center has shifted to delivering free food to the community through a pantry.
The pantry, open every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., was funded and equipped with a freezer and several refrigeration units donated by the Mississippi Food Network, a statewide food bank based in Jackson.
The pantry, located at one of the center’s buildings at 709 Ave. I, has been operating since early November. It has provided food to 312 applicants representing 700 people, said Debra Adams, a co-founder of the center.
She said 75 new applicants have qualified to receive food from the pantry.
The food is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and distributed to the center by the Food Network.
Items in each food box include frozen meats or fish, non-perishable foods such as dried mashed potatoes and rice, canned vegetables and juice.
Baby formula also is distributed at the pantry, and Adams said that by February diapers will also be given away thanks to the center’s partnership with the Diaper Bank of the Delta, a Clarksdale-based nonprofit.
Recipients are allowed to get food from the pantry twice a month. “Those boxes are geared toward keeping enough food to last them for two weeks, based on the applicant’s household size,” Adams said.
Based on the growth in the number of applicants within two months, Adams said that there is “definitely a need, and it’s definitely a need with the seniors that come in.”
The elderly make up about 80% of the food pantry recipients, many of whom are on fixed incomes.
“Having this food allows them to have the money to pay their bills,” she said.
The center started providing free food to the public in 2020 thanks to the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program, in which the USDA purchased food from farmers economically affected by the pandemic and gave it to community organizations for local distribution.
A food box giveaway was held every month from 2020 until the pantry opened in 2021, with an average of 525 food boxes given away each day, Adams said.
Items available at the Greenwood Community Center’s food pantry includes pasta, mashed potatoes and cranberry juice. (By Gerard Edic)
On a recent Thursday morning, a group of residents lined up in front of the Community Center to receive food boxes. Volunteers with the center hustled inside, helping people apply and packaging boxes of food.
“We really have a high demand of people who don’t have enough food to carry them for a month,” said Maxcine White, a volunteer who was loading up shopping carts with canned goods. Without the pantry, residents often have to make a choice between buying food or their medicine, she said. “We don’t turn anybody down.”
Bettye Thomas, a regular recipient, said she was “feeling great” Thursday after picking up her food box, which included canned goods and baby formula.
“The Community Center brings a lot of nutritious food to people who need it,” she said. “They give you all kinds of nutritious food to help you make a meal.”
Thomas, 77, recalled when the Community Center was still the St. Francis Center, which in its heyday provided a variety of important services for the Black community.
In addition to being “the first place we could come to play bingo,” it had a credit union that served the Black community, Thomas said. Growing up, she took piano and typing classes at the former St. Francis Center.
“It has been a prosperous building,” she said.
Thomas said she was thankful for Earnest Adams, a Greenwood native and former law enforcement officer in the Atlanta area. He came back to his hometown in 2019 to launch the center with his wife, Debra, after they purchased the Avenue I building.
Larry Evans, who was receiving food from the center’s pantry for the first time, loaded his car with two boxes of it.
“I just came by to see if everything was true,” he said.
Debra Adams said there’s a plan to expand the center’s food operations.
“What we’re looking at now is trying to find a storage house so we can order even more food to give it out whenever anyone needs it,” she said.
The center also needs volunteers who can assist with the pantry’s operations, especially considering it’s the center’s largest program, she said. “We’re so grateful that we do get volunteer help when it’s asked, but we really need some consistent volunteers.”
To learn more about the Community Center or to inquire about volunteering, call the center at 662-644-6170.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
