By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A grant worth 200-thousand dollars received by Second Harvest from the USDA will help fund the agencies mobile food pantries.
Second Harvest Chief Development Officer Michelle Fagerstone says the grant helped match funds Second Harvest had put up for its Fresh Mobile Food Pantry.
"It is covering 20 communities in the rural area in northwest Missouri and I'm not 100% at this point in time the exact percentage that is going to each community, but every community that we applied for received some," Fagerstone tells reporters
Second Harvest welcomed USDA officials to St. Joseph earlier this week to tour its facility and speak to volunteers.
Fagerstone says it’s always good to see USDA officials in town adding that the officials coming to visit shows how much they are listening to the needs of rural communities.
Second Harvest officials applied for the three-year loan last year and got notified earlier this spring that the money had been received. With the first year completed Second Harvest is eligible for reimbursement of the first year.
Fagerstone says the grant was applied for because of Second Harvests operating budget of four million dollars.
"We need as many grants to come in as we possibly can to help with our funding and any grant that comes through that we qualify for, we will be applying for," Fagerstone says. "So, there's not one that's left out if it's available then we apply for it, that doesn't necessarily mean we always get it but we do apply for a lot of grants."
The grant money will help service Second Harvests fresh mobile food pantry. Second Harvest serves 19 counties in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas.
USDA Rural Housing Service Administrator Joaquin Altoro praised Second Harvest for its efficiency in serving the community.
Second Harvest Chief Development Officer Michelle Fagerstone says that efficiency is in part because of the mobile food pantries Second Harvest recently eliminated.
"And which ones they were going to, not necessarily eliminate, but they weren't going to be held every single month," Fagerstone explains. "So, some of those communities that are no longer going to be held every single month will receive a food drop they'll do a pantry, a fresh mobile pantry, once a quarter or twice a year at those particular communities."
Fagerstone says this grant will not help Second Harvest in bringing those pantries back.
Beginning August 1st Second Harvest will provide between 20 and 24 mobile pantries a month.