November was a record month in receipt of food and items for our pantry. The school held two food drives for us which netted us 2084.9 pounds of food. We also received 133.8 pounds and $100 from the Fall Tea. The Girl Scouts of Smithton helped serve at the tea and along with the Sedalia Girl Scouts donated another 35.6 pounds of food. Shrock Country Market went out of business so we received another 1051.4 pounds of food/goods as a result of their closure. The McKinney's gave us shampoo/lotions/soap that amounted to 32 pounds. The grand total for the month was 3337.7 pounds of food and goods as well as the $100 donation that will be spent on needed items. We added two more families to our roster this month so now we have 48 families registered with a total of 143 people being served. This month we served 44 families and 143 people. The families are allowed to come both days the pantry is open. Flyers are being sent to churches in Florence, Clifton City, Syracuse, and Tipton to make them aware of our Food Pantry. Those areas do not have a close food pantry so we hope we can serve people in need of food in those areas. Brenda Turpin at the B&L Market has agreed to have a food panty collection bin placed at her business so people can drop off food any time. Margot Evans will also have a collection bin on her porch at the corner of BB Hwy and Montgomery so people can drop food there as well. As more people are becoming aware of our needs we have benefited from more community support and volunteers. The students at the school are helping unload and sort the items on the distribution days prior to the open ours of the pantry. Volunteers are serving as guides and checking in of the clients. Students are helping as guides and helping people carry their items to their cars. Volunteers are also helping deliver food to shut ins. We are still in need of more volunteers. We would like to have a representative from each church that would help keep their members informed and possibly recruit more volunteers for us. Even though we have received an abundance of food and items this month we are still in need of several items. We need more canned meat, canned fruit, tomato products, pasta, cereals, paper products, cleaning supplies such as dish soap, laundry soap, and household cleaning supplies. People who are on food stamps can not buy non food items with their food stamps. We would like to be able to handle more items. It would help a great deal if we had shelving instead of the tables which tend to give under the weight of the cans. We can not have anything sitting on the floor. Mr. Shrock has agreed to sell us his grocery store type shelving for $25 per 4 feet. This is a great deal for us as other shelving has been priced form $40-$60 per 4 feet. We pray and hope that churches, organizations, or individuals will help us secure the needed shelving. The Missouri Food Bank of Columbia sent a truck to our pantry on Nov 22 with grapefruit, bags of hot dogs and 100s of pounds of ground "Share the Harvest" venison. Clients were allowed to take as much as they wanted of this meat. Anthony did not want to take any of the meat back with him so we filled all the freezers at the church and our home freezer with what he left for our pantry. We need to clear some of this so we will have room for the new frozen items we will receive on Dec 13th. If there is anyone you know who needs meat, please contact Rita or Jim Henson at 660-366-4988 to pick up some of this meat. Anthony advised he will be bringing another truck load of items on Dec 27th. He will not know until that day what he will be bringing. The recipients of the food have been very grateful for all they are receiving and the volunteers are being blessed knowing they are helping other people.