Food Pantry Shelves Are Bare

Just three weeks ago, the largest food pantry in Highlands County had breathtakingly low bank balance of $1,000.

"We now have $12,000," said William Stephenson, the executive director.

Last week was good one, and Saturday produced a food drive that brought in 89 bags of canned food and dry goods that averaged about seven pounds each, said Stephenson.

"It's just a small group," Stephenson said. He went to the 23 Ministerial Association of Avon Park churches who contribute to the food pantry. Parishioners responded with the money, and the people of River Greens, who live north of Avon Park on Lake Damon, decided to have a food drive. They hung plastic bags on doors earlier in the week, and on Saturday collected about 600 pounds of food.

But it won't last long. Church Service Center will make it through the holidays. There are 13 other food pantries in Highlands County, and no major food bank, so it may be touch-and-go for some of the smallest, Stephenson said.

Some pantries have closed, including one at a Sebring church in which the couple who ran it got too old and too tired to keep going, Stephenson said. "They tried to find someone who would take it over. They couldn't."

Church Service Center fed 7,000 families last year, said Stephenson, who must track such things, since he gets assistance from the U.S.D.A.

"We're getting ready to feed a lot of people," he said. Christmas is only two weeks away.

Church Service Center is located in a building on South Butler called the Station, because it's the former police and fire stations. The city of Avon Park leases it to CSC for a few dollars a year.

When a family of four comes calling, they're given 30 pounds of food, a paper sack of canned goods, a plastic sack of dry goods, and other products that constitute a nutritionally balanced diet, said Stephenson, a retired manufacturer's representative from Vermont who retired with his wife to sailboat. The boat broke down in Cocoa Beach, and they were befriended by a couple who had a house on Lake Lilly.

So they golfed five days a week. But while they were attending Union Congregational Church in Avon Park, they heard a message from the pastor which turned Stephenson's life around. He started volunteering at the food pantry one day a week, and when the director got too old to continue, Stephenson was asked to take over temporarily.

"That was five years ago," he said.

What the food pantry needs today is donations of canned food and dry goods, and monetary donations, so Stephenson can buy more food cheaply from the Tampa food bank.

"And prayers," said Stephenson, who believes all things are possible.

To donate, send checks to Church Service Center, 198 Rowe St., Avon Park, FL, 33825. Donations may be dropped at the Station. More information: 452-6464.