EDIE ZUVANICH Special to the Press
HUTTO — On a normal week, Hutto Resource Center distributes around 100 sacks of groceries to families who need a little extra help. For Thanksgiving, the food pantry planned 150 family meal donations, but a last-minute request has left the organization scrambling to provide over 30 additional food-insecure families a holiday meal.
“If you have a voucher for a turkey from a grocery store you don’t plan to use, please bring it to our office at 204 E. Live Oak St. If you have extra cranberry sauce, green beans, cream of mushroom soup, cake mixes, frosting, sweet potatoes, stuffing or box potatoes, please bring them to our office or drop them off at one of our partner locations around town,” the agency posted in a social media call for help.
In order to be packed for the distribution this Saturday, food donations should be dropped off directly to the Hutto Resource Center by Friday.
Monetary donations can be made on their website, huttoresourcecenter.org.
“People have an idea of lower income folks as our typical customer, but they come from every walk of life,” said Laura Wells, executive director. “Anybody can get hit by hard luck.
Maybe they’ve been out of work a couple of months, maybe had a huge hospital bill that set them back, salary being cut, positions being cut. We’re currently calculating 11% inflation, and that’s really taken a toll on people.”
While the Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a whole turkey, and the Christmas dinner, generally accompanied by a ham, are their biggest distribution days, the HRC provides groceries to those in need all year.
“We are relying on somebody thinking about us every week,” Wells said. “New data shows one in eight families can be food insecure. Think about your 10 closest friends, it’s likely one of them is facing food insecurity.
That’s a pretty alarming statistic.”
Wells said the agency gives about 1,200 pounds of groceries on a typical distribution day, not including the special holiday meals.
Those in need can register for grocery donations during the pick-up time, receive their grocery bag and bring back the paperwork the next week. There are no requirements for getting food help, all who register are accepted.
Mike “Mikie” Ackerman Jr. is the food pantry assistant. He works to make sure the pantry is stocked to give each bag the same type and amount of food.
“I try to make sure we have meal items, like pasta and spaghetti sauce, hamburger helpers, bags of rice, chunky soups and things like that.
The snack stuff I try to avoid because it’s not very filling and it’s not really a meal and it’s expensive trying to get full on Cheez-its versus making a pot of spaghetti,” he said.
Ackerman asked that people avoid giving expired food that’s been sitting in their pantries. He said that tuna, canned chicken and shelf-stable milk are some of the items that are always in demand and that the food pantry doesn’t get enough of.
While the food pantry may be the service the HRC is best known for, Wells said the agency also helps in other ways.
“It really does take a village to feed our village,” she said. “The holidays are special, and we want to take extra special care of people during the holidays, but the need does not end on Dec. 26.”
