SEMO Food Bank receives 34,500 pound food donation

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) donated an entire truck load of food to the Southeast Missouri Food Bank last week.

The food bank’s chief executive officer, Joey Keys, said the donation equates to nearly 29,000 meals. With food prices going up recently, Keys said the donation comes at a vital time.

“If you’ve been to a grocery store recently, you know food prices are going up,” Keys said in a release. “For us, that means more people struggling to make ends meet and needing help to put food on the table. The church’s generous donation will allow us to help many of those people.”

The donation was given by the LDS church at-large and not the local church in Cape Girardeau, according to Edward Clarence, a member of the Farmington church.

SEMO Food Bank will distribute the donated food to A Better Childhood (ABC) Mobile Pantry in Jackson.

Altogether, the donation included 34,500 pounds of food. Items included applesauce, soup and peanut butter.

Any items left will be given to the food bank’s network of partner agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters, according to a release from the food bank.

SEMO Food Bank distributes food to 143 charitable and disaster relief programs within its coverage area of 16 counties.

The food bank serves about 10% more people in its coverage area than what it served before the pandemic, according to Lisa Church, SEMO Food Bank’s chief advancement officer.

The area SEMO Food Bank serves has some of the highest rates of hunger in the state, Church said. One in six families and one in five children live in a home where they don’t have the resources to acquire enough food.

Church said as gas and grocery prices rise, families are having an even harder time making ends meet.

“This donation came at a good time,” Church said.