FLORENCE, Ky.-There’s a good chance a family you know struggles to put food on the table for their kids, or that a friend your kid plays with has had to go to bed hungry.
One Northern Kentucky organization says food insecurity is more common than most think, and it’s trying to do something about it.
Angela Purcell, for example, was earning too much money at her job to qualify for food stamps, and too little to consistently feed her daughter.
“After you pay the necessities that you have to pay, the big necessity of food, nutrition for my daughter, I didn’t have that,” Purcell said. “There was times that I didn’t want to ask for help. I felt like I was failing.”
That was 23 years ago. Purcell is now a successful EKG technician for St Elizabeth Healthcare, and helping families that struggled like she did by volunteering at Go Pantry in Florence.
“So, I looked into it and saw it was for children that were in need of food and nutrition for the summers. So I just hopped on board,” she said.
Her story is not uncommon. According to Go Pantry, nationally, one in five children, or 20%, struggle with food insecurity.
“But people are really surprised to learn that the numbers here in northern Kentucky are much higher. So on average we’re in the 30s,” said Go Pantry Executive Director Laura Dumancic.
Dumancic was part of a group of families that in 2012 noticed a lot of their kids’ classmates were going hungry. They started the nonprofit Go Pantry, and at the time were able to feed seven hungry kids.
“And we’re helping, now, 650 to 1,000 kids a week, working with between 40 and 50 schools all across Northern Kentucky,” she said.
Dumancic said there are pockets of poverty in Northern Kentucky that have benefited greatly from the service.
“There are people that are truly struggling. Their hunger doesn’t stop. The challenges of finding food day in and day out is a real obstacle for many families,” she said. “I can’t wrap my head around a child that has to struggle through days at a time truly not knowing where or when their next meal is going to come to them. That’s the definition of food insecurity.”
Volunteers fill go bags, which can get kids through a weekend. Go boxes can last them and their families about a week.
Purcell said helping means so much to her, because she knows what it means to the families she’s helping now, and what it would’ve meant to her then.
“Go Pantry is something that I wish that we had back then for not only single mothers, but everybody has a story,” she said. “I knew that one day there would be a bright side. So anybody that’s struggling today, everything happens for a reason.”
Go Pantry recently had 3,600 boxes of food come in from their biggest food drive through St. Elizabeth. That food will help keep a lot of kids fed throughout the summer, but there’s always a need for more, Dumancic said.
If you want to find out how to donate, volunteer, or do your own food drive, visit Go Pantry’s website.