By Steven Spencer
The Brussels Girl Scout Troop with the help of the Brussels High School National Honor Society will be collecting for their annual food drive Saturday, March 18.
Residents of the community are asked to have their donations on their door steps by 8 a.m. when donations will then be collected and taken to St. Vincent De Paul food pantry.
The SVDP food pantry said with federal funding from The Emergency Food Assistance Program being reduced local pantries aren’t receiving as many donations as normal.
“The cuts are really scary,” Pantry Manager Robin Hillen said. “We normally receive between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds of food from the TEFAP program. This week we are only getting 175 pounds.”
Donations can be any non-perishable foods and clean or personal hygiene items.
“Last year they brought us over 2,600 cans or boxes of food,” Hillen said of the Girl Scouts. “We sure hope they can exceed that. I really encourage the community to donate to their food drive.”
Last year the SVDP Food Pantry was able to serve 197 different households representing 457 family members in the community.
Hillen also encouraged people to support the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl program, which helps local diocese to support hunger and poverty efforts.
“For the last three years SVDP has received a Rice Bowl grant from the diocese for the food pantry.” Brad Vacca, Board President said. “Last year we received $3,000, the maximum grant. We are definitely going to need these funds again this year.”
