Murphy – The Sharing Center, largest food bank in Cherokee County, is facing record demand as the coronavirus pandemic grows.
“We’ve gone to a drive-through operation,” said Sande Kimball, president of the board of directors. “But we’re still very much open, and the number of families we serve is growing every week.”
Normally, she said, a new family will be signed up once in a while, added to the rolls to receive a generous amount of free food just once a month.
Usually, the Sharing Center has more than 1,000 eligible families, and they can come at their convenience to get their monthly food ration any Tuesday or Friday between 1-3 p.m.
“However, we enrolled a total 15 brand-new families on a recent Friday,” she said. “Probably the most new ones in one day ever in our history.”
The Sharing Center operates from the basement of First United Methodist Church downtown. Clients have always crowded together on pews and chairs as they awaited their turn. But no more.
“To reduce face-to-face contact, we ask our clients to remain in their vehicles,” she said. “Our paperwork has been streamlined, and we bring out their food and load it into their cars or trucks, rain or shine.”
A number of churches in and west of Murphy support the Sharing Center with ongoing financial support and providing volunteer workers.
It was started years ago as a cooperative effort by Catholic and Protestant churches in town, which still participate at all levels. Today, three other rural church groups are also heavily involved – Friendship Baptist, plus Ranger and Reid’s Chapel United Methodist.
The Sharing Center’s address is P.O. Box 692, Murphy, NC 28906. Donations are needed to fund the increasing demand for food.
Clients from Topton to the Tennessee line come to the Sharing Center, many of those senior citizens living in families of only one or two members. Records are kept carefully and show that average families come for free food only three or four times a year, although they are eligible for 12 visits.
However, that’s changing as more and larger families are enrolling and driving to the Sharing Center.
Sometimes closed when it conflicted with special religious services, the Sharing Center will be open as usual this Good Friday.
Wally Avett, a volunteer worker at the Sharing Center food pantry for the last 6-8 years, is also a member of the local charity’s board of directors.