Soup’s on at Food Pantry

By Staff, 01/25/18 1:06 PM

PRESCOTT – There were plenty of lists, all being checked at least twice and they had nothing to do with Santa or Christmas.

Instead, it was soup orders for the Food Pantry’s Third Annual Soup Day Thursday. Patrons could choose from 13 types of soup including chili, deer chili, chicken tortilla, broccoli cheese, vegetable, chicken enchilada, taco, twice baked potato and bacon-corn chowder, among others.

Orders were being delivered before the 11 a.m. start time, and taken all over town. The meal, $6 a person, included, soup, cookies, corn bread and a drink.

According to Vickie Duncan, who’s over the pantry, the first Soup Day was held in November, but it was decided this time of year was too warm, and that year it was also scheduled opposite Homecoming at Prescott High School. The event was moved to January when the cooler weather would make soup more tempting.

Duncan said everything is donated, with soups being made by area churches and individuals. All the money raised will go back into the pantry to help feed area residents. The pantry, she added, serves between 550-700 individuals a month. Much of the food comes through Harvest in Texarkana as the local pantry is in the Harvest region, not in the Little Rock region.

“Sometimes we get donations from Wal-Mart, but we never know what it’s going to be,” she said. There have been times when Wal-Mart has donated ribeye steaks and roasts to food pantries. Other donations come from individuals and churches. An end-of-the-year donor letter is mailed to donors around Thanksgiving to try and bring more in for the holidays. In addition, the pantry applies for grants to purchase items such as refrigerators and freezers. The grant money is used locally as much as possible to help the local community and economy. “This community is good to us,” she said, “and we want to give back.”

When it comes to buying food, Duncan said the pantry gets the healthies foods it can to help its patrons stay healthy. In addition, commodities from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are distributed through the pantry monthly, but this program is income based. Soon, she added, the pantry will be distributing senior adult commodities which include cheese and peanut butter.

The situation at the pantry was organized chaos as the 13 volunteers scrambled to prepare boxes and bags for takeout and delivery. Duncan said by the end of the day there would be no soup left. The event ran from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.