Matthew 25

Tomoka Christian’s Food Pantry was the beneficiary of more than two tons of food through the May 8 Boy Scout Food Drive. Below is a report about the drive from Ralph Zellers, who graciously donates his time to coordinate TCC’s Pantry.

“The Pantry was blessed with at least 27 volunteers. All that attended worked on picnic tables in the heat, receiving 195 tubs of donated food from 10 different postal routes. According to Postal Supervisor Bill Klein, each tub equates to 25 pounds of donated food. Doing the math, that equals to 4,850 pounds of food received! The volunteers separated the donated food into categories such as meat, fruit, glass, vegetables and miscellaneous condiments. We then boxed and stored the food for future distribution to Pantry patrons.”

Thank you to all who stepped up to be the hands and feet of Jesus despite the temperatures!

Ralph also shared some fascinating information about TCC’s Food Pantry and the help it is providing to local families.

1. The Pantry has about 32 regular volunteers that operate it throughout each month.
2. The Pantry feeds 35 to 45 families each week. (Most families average three people per family or approximately 160 families and 480 people on the average four-week month.)
3. Other sources of Pantry food include donations from the TCC Mission Wall basket, Publix Supermarkets and Second Harvest Food Bank.
4. To date this year we have received 24,902 pounds of food from Second Harvest at a cost $3,163.53 or an average of $158.00 per week.
5. The Pantry also serves three other ministries: The TCC kitchen, the Palmetto House Ministry and the Homeless Sandwich Ministry.

FYI: The Food Pantry is open each Saturday from 3-4:30 p.m. Those wishing to volunteer are invited to contact Ralph Zellers at (386) 672-6438.