Plenty of fans are available to cope with the summer heat, but the food supply has dwindled to near zero at the Salvation Army.
Westar Energy donated 50 fans to the Salvation Army last week and applications are being taken for them to be distributed.
Despite major drives for the food pantry, however, demand consistently has exceeded supply.
“The pantry is very, very low,” said Capt. Hope Burris. “I haven’t ever seen it that bare. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh! We hardly have anything to make bags.’”
Without substantial help from public donations, Burris and others at the agency will be unable to provide food to people in need.
The need for supplies is perpetual at the Salvation Army food pantry, and the need began to peak when Tyson Foods announced it would close a sizable portion of its operations at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Emporia. The shortage became critical when those workers and their families came to the intake center this spring to register for services and take home groceries.
“We gave over 213 bags of food away just at the intake center, and that’s 213 bags we didn’t budget for,” Burris said of the unanticipated demand created by the closing.
Families of former Tyson workers continue to need food, in addition to the base of clients the Salvation Army already serves.
“The First United Methodist Church did a huge food drive for us at the beginning of May, and it’s nearly gone,” Burris said. “People are getting hit really hard with the gas prices and the utilities.”
Burris asked that anyone who has extra food to donate bring it to the agency’s headquarters at Fourth Avenue and Constitution Street.