The stockroom at the Meeker County Emergency Food Shelf is looking somewhat bare these days.

Shelves that used to be filled with boxes, cans and jars are sitting empty and lonely due to a shortage of donations — a sight Food Shelf Director Brenda Voigt cringes at with the busy holiday season on the horizon.

As of October, the Meeker County Food Shelf has served 835 families this year, providing Meeker County men, women and children with more than 16,500 meals. However, Voigt said November and December are typically the food shelf’s busiest months.

“Once fall comes around, we are fairly low with both food and cash donations,” she said.

While numbers are expected to surpass 2006’s totals of 900 households served and 19,935 meals, Voigt said the shelves now are looking more bare than last year.

“With the busy holiday season coming up now, when I go back and get food for someone, (I see) it’s really dwindling,” she said.

The food shelf received a boost Saturday when Cub Scout Pack 353 of Litchfield delivered hundreds of bags and thousands of pounds of food in its annual food drive. While the weight of the food that the Cub Scouts collected this year has not been totaled, food drive organizer Rob Oster said the scouts collected 2,800 pounds of food last November.

“For the scouts, I think it’s just an activity that shows what scouting is all about, which is helping people and the like,” Oster said. “And...it’s a time of the year when food is low on supply and demand is high.”

Donations
Anyone interested in making a cash or food donation can do so at the Meeker County Emergency Food Shelf at 127 Sibley Ave. N., Litchfield.

The food shelf is also looking for volunteers. Contact Brenda Voigt at (320) 693-7661, if interested.