Fishes and Loaves in Cashiers kicked off its summer food drive, with hopes to draw attention to the mission of the organization while providing food accessibility to those in need.
The organization typically has two food drives a year, one in the summer and one in the fall, Larry Morris, board president, said. The fall event is part of the Empty Bowl project. “We have handmade pottery bowls that we give as people that make a donation to us,” Morris said.
Morris said he hopes people become more aware of the prevalence of hunger in Cashiers, despite the wealth surrounding the community.
He said many residents in the Cashiers area do not live locally, often commuting from surrounding regions, such as Sylva and eastern Macon County. This disconnect often leads to a lack of awareness about the hunger that exists in the area.
He added that many of the people seeking assistance are typically not unemployed or elderly, but rather are working individuals trying to make ends meet amidst increasing utility costs and living expenses.
“I can’t tell you how many people we get from different businesses around here that are struggling. … That’s where we fill that gap,” he said.
The food pantry, which operates under the MANNA umbrella, benefits from the support of 11 churches and community organizations such as the Rotary Club. The collaborative effort among these groups allows the pantry to serve a more diverse population.
“We are a little different than a lot of food pantries, which may be associated with one or two churches,” Morris said. “So, we really draw on that and always love it when new people come through and we’re able to show them what we do here and they get a feel for what goes on,” Morris said.
The pantry also adopted a client choice model, which allows individuals to select their food items, which not only respects their dignity, but also reduces food waste.
“Normally they get one or two boxes of food, depending on the number in the family, and we’ve had everything tagged so they can shop and get whatever they need and they get to select and have that dignity to just get what they want,” Morris said.
Bill Fehrs, a Fishes and Loaves volunteer, said one of the organization’s biggest struggles is getting the word out to the community about the organization’s mission.
“Food availability to the people that want to donate it isn’t really a problem because of the proximity of Ingles here … so it’s easy for them to go pick up additional food if they need to. But I would say getting the message out there is our biggest challenge,” he said.
Fehrs said the community can become more involved by donating to the cause.
“Cash allows us to tailor our distribution to the needs of our particular clients,” he said. “But that only happens when we have money to do that. And so, money is really the thing that we depend on the most to help us keep things stocked here and allows us to again tailor our distribution to those individuals.”
- Kevin McCall
reporter@highlandsnews.com