Food-basket demand quadruples

The Rescue Mission is distributing 50 food baskets a week.

STAFF REPORTS

YOUNGSTOWN — The Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley is seeking help from the community to meet a huge increase in the need for food baskets.

“We are inviting anyone and everyone to help us help others in this time of national crisis. Our emergency food baskets are made up of donated food items,” said Lynn Wyant, Rescue Mission development coordinator. Each basket has enough food to make 42 meals, she said.

“The number of baskets we historically have distributed in a month has become the weekly number,” said Jim Echement, director of development for the Rescue Mission.

Over the past five years, the Rescue Mission has experienced a relatively stable number of emergency food-basket requests, about 50 or 60 per month. But recently, the number this year exploded to 50 a week, Echement said.

He blames the combination of the collapse of the housing, financial and automotive industries, along with the winter season, for the increase in requests for food.

“Demand for the essential services provided by the mission is going to grow exponentially in the coming weeks and months, with no end in sight,” Echement said.

Individuals willing to collect nonperishable food items from friends and neighbors, as well as churches, businesses, service clubs and other organizations willing to sponsor collection drives are asked to contact Wyant at (330) 744-5485 or e-mail LWyant@RescueMissionMV.org to set up a food drive.

The Rescue Mission will deliver empty collection barrels and pick up full ones. People can drop off donations at the Mission’s resident building, 962 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. anytime, or at the Mission Distribution Center, 2246 Glenwood Ave., Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Also, people can make monetary donations online at www.RescueMissionMV.org or mail a check or money order to P.O. Box 298, Youngstown, Ohio 44501, Wyant said.

The Rescue Mission, which serves Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, is 100 percent funded by the community. It receives no money from United Way or the government, Wyant said.

The mission operates an emergency food-basket program to avoid duplication of services among other food pantries in the Mahoning Valley. “We’re not trying to be a food pantry. We are an emergency source for the overflow,” she said.

Individuals in dire need of food can contact the Rescue Mission by phone and make an appointment to receive a food basket from the Mission’s Distribution Center, located on Glenwood Avenue, by calling (330) 744-5485 weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Also, the mission serves three meals a day, seven days a week at its resident building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Wyant said.

alcorn@vindy.com