Murphy – The Sharing Center, Cherokee County’s largest food bank operation, is facing soaring numbers of clients in the past 90 days.
At the same time, its financial support is declining, probably due to the national increase in prices across the board, its leaders say, for food and gasoline, among other daily expenses.
Officially last week, leaders of the First Baptist Church and the Sharing Center met to recognize that the food bank is operating out of the church’s former Sparrow’s Nest warehouse, behind its main building. It had operated for years out of the ground floor of Murphy First United Methodist Church downtown, but had been forced to move out for renovation work.
Sharing Center directors were worried that clients might not be able to find the new location, where food is distributed from noon-2 p.m. Mondays and Fridays. But large numbers of needy families, including a sizable number of new folks, are receiving food there regularly. Once enrolled, clients can receive food twice each month.
Numbers rose drastically recently.
“In April we served 573 people,” said Sande Kimball, chair of the board of directors. “But the next month, in May it jumped up to almost 1,000 people being served. In June, it was a total of 854, in July it will total more than 1,000.”
The Sharing Center is an effort of eight churches, Catholic and Protestant, who work together to provide volunteer labor and financial support for the food pantry.
“In the past we were able to budget and spend about $1,000 per week to obtain groceries for our families,” Kimball said. “But our donations are way down, not as many groups are holding food drives to bring us canned goods as in the past.”
Grants have declined too, she said, also a negative effect. Contributions can be sent to the Sharing Center, P.O. Box 692, Murphy NC 28906.
The writer is a member of the Sharing Center Board of Directors.