COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – It’s the hard work of many volunteers that allows the Branch Area Food Pantry to succeed year after year while the numbers from 2015 easily show how generous the community has been in feeding the needy in the county. Food boxes were received by 6,112 families last year, assisting a total of 16,748 people. In effect, 38% of the population of Branch County turned to the Pantry for help at some time during 2015.
The statistics also indicate more of the population has found a reason to call on the Food Pantry for the first time. Last year, 517 new households benefited from pantry food boxes which provided aid to 1,222 individuals.
Commodities distributed by the pantry include breads and sweets, which were taken home in 2015 by nearly 39,000 people. And over the summer last year, more than 31,000 people picked up produce at the pantry.
2016 brings some changes at the Branch Area Food Pantry following the retirement at the end of last year of longtime managers Dick and Pat Straw. Terri Ann Pease-Huffman is the pantry’s new Volunteer Coordinator.
