Grade school students give helping hand to local food pantry

HARRISBURG, Ill. (KBSI) – The JMAG corporation partnered with the Carrier Mills grade school to put thousands of items on the shelves of a Harrisburg food pantry.

Amy Oxford is the Heavens Kitchen Food Pantry Director, she shares JMAG-a financial company in Harrisburg partnered with the Carrier Mills grade school to make a very large donation to the pantry!

“They donated 2,705 pieces to our food pantry and I personally counted every one of those yesterday afternoon and it’s just heartwarming” says Oxford.  

To really get students involved the winning classroom got a pizza party! Oxford shares she got the opportunity to talk with those same students through reading week, sharing that both students who donated and students who go to the pantry are equally vital and that it’s ok to need help sometimes.

“I shared a book about a little girl that had to go to the food pantry and was embarrassed” says Oxford. ” So, I got to openly talk to those students about, ‘it’s okay to need help, everybody needs help sometimes’. So, the kids had great open discussion with me about it. I loved how the teachers you could tell they’d already laid all the groundwork of what heaven’s kitchen is and what we do, and the kids know exactly what the food pantry was all about.” 

Oxford shares the pantry serves over 100 families each week and they give food out every Tuesday evening to anyone in need of food regardless of what county they are from. 

Oxford says they never turn someone hungry away if they can help it, but they rely completely on donations and grant funding to stay open and to feed those who need it the most. 

“We’ve kicked off a new drive for money to try to repair the flaws in our pantry” says Oxford. “So that’s another way people can give, we want to keep that money completely separate so that anything given for food is staying with food but if people want to help with a repair, we love that they can reach out through Facebook. They can reach out through our website and just send us an email, give us a call, and we’d love to hear from them.” 

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