This time of year the Food Pantry is quite busy with more people in need who have no work during winter months. We experience less food overall coming in during these months also. Our February numbers are 578 families with 690 adults and 3,001 children. The children numbers are high because of the schools we serve.

We wish to thank K Bay Caffe for their coffee, especially around the holidays; Amy Johnson for the 50 stockings that were so fat and full; Glacierview Baptist Youth Group for always remembering us; North Pacific Fisheries and the fish they shared with us; and Coal Point for the neatly packaged fish. We are seeing packages of food from the churches in town and are so grateful. We so appreciate your kindness.

Thanks also for the much-needed financial support from Safeway for their Turkey Call Program, the Emblem Club, the United Methodist Church, the Forquers, Starks and many others for whom space is limited. We appreciate all the private food and financial donations, which are too numerous to list here.

We have two important new programs that most people are unaware we operate. Last September the Food Delivery Program began serving clients who have health problems, are elderly, who have no transportation or live too great a distance. There are 28 families consisting of 63 people who are delivered food weekly from Anchor Point to Ninilchik by some very special people. In January, we teamed up with the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank's Commodity Supplemental Food Program that is a USDA program supplying a monthly food box to qualifying clients. We serve 25 families in this program from Homer to Ninilchik. They consist of seniors, women and children younger than 6 not under WIC.

If you'd like to help, remember that April is National Hunger Month. Look for tubs or boxes at different locations around town. We always need canned and dry goods (canned tomatoes, rice, oats, eggs, noodles, Top Ramen, beans, canned fruit and vegetables). We need half-pint and 16-ounce size containers (we are desperate for yogurt-size containers), and Ziplocs (sandwich and quart). Mondays, 10-1, are the best time to bring items by the Methodist Church.

Those of us at the Food Pantry thank you for your support and help for those in need. It's such a blessing to live in a community who care about their neighbors.

Diana Jeska