The grant received by Jacksonville Elks Lodge 682 in Jacksonville is helping ease some of the burden on food programs this summer, the lodge said.
Lodge members saw a recent Journal Courier news story about the increased demand for food pantries amid declining donations and rising prices and decided they wanted to do something to help, said Susie Pennell, the lodge’s executive director.
That prompted them to apply for and receive a $2,000 Spotlight grant through the Elks National Foundation, Pennell said.
Pennell said lodge officers L.C. Clinton, James Lomellino, Peggy West and Cheryl Hansen went to Aldi with cash in hand and loaded up non-perishable food items to deliver to the Jacksonville Area Community Food Center.
“Our funds are dwindling and we don’t know how much longer we can hold out,” food center manager Melissa Hall said in early May, noting that the center serves an average of 700 families a month. “We need to get the word out.”
The food center and the Salvation Army, which also operates a food pantry, asked the Jacksonville City Council for emergency funding earlier this year, but the city’s budget did not have the money, Mayor Andy Ezzard said at the time.
The problem was expected to worsen when schools went on summer vacation, when families whose children previously ate lunch (and sometimes breakfast) at school suddenly had to stockpile more food at home.
