Every bit counts when it comes to providing food for people in need, but larger donations really keep food pantries' shelves stocked. That's why places like the Samaritan Center and Salvation Army are so grateful to the Jefferson City area businesses that regularly donate perishable food items for their clients.
"They provide lots of meat, enough to sustain service for the month," said Salvation Army food pantry worker Tyra Brown. "No one goes hungry. No one ever leaves without meat."
Grocery store donations make up about 50 percent of what the Salvation Army food pantry distributes, Brown estimated. The pantry offers one food box per household per month and served 264 households comprising 627 people during February.
"It's been a blessing," said Carlos Robinette, food pantry supervisor at the Samaritan Center. "That saves us a lot of money from us having to purchase them, and it actually goes back into the community."
Grocery stores including Gerbes Super, Gerbes West, Hy-Vee, Save-a-Lot, Schnucks, Schulte's Fresh Foods, Target and the east-side Walmart Supercenter, as well as restaurants like Panera Bread and Cafe Via Roma, donate regularly to one or both food pantries. Those donations include items like day-old bread and pastries, and meat and produce nearing their expiration date that can be frozen for distribution.
"That helps out tremendously. We are able to give everybody that comes in for food at least one bread item and one pastry item," Robinette said. "The freezer items, that's a tremendous help because we are able to give them protein. A lot of the other food pantries around here are not able to give protein, whether it's milk or eggs; steak, hamburger or sausage; or fish."
Samaritan Center and Salvation Army volunteers and employees pick up the perishable food items on a schedule from each business. For example, they stop by Gerbes Super every Thursday and Panera Bread every Monday.
Panera Bread donates its leftover bread and pastries to a different charitable organization every night of the week.
"We bake everything fresh in our store every single day," said Panera manager Ken Beck. "Whatever is leftover, we donate all of it."
Beck estimated the Jefferson City Panera Bread donates about $300 to $1,000 in retail-value bread items daily, always over-preparing so some is left at the end of every day.
"It's a service both to them and to us - us, mostly - they're able to give back to the community, and we're able to give it out to them," Robinette said.
Even if businesses aren't able to donate on a weekly schedule, many do so as possible and needed. For example, the Samaritan Center can expect occasional donations from Jefferson City's Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper distributors; and when the agency assembles annual hygiene kits for clients, the local Unilever facility provides shampoo and other hygiene items on request. JC Distributing also donates use of its equipment for the Samaritan Center to move stock as necessary.
That seems to be the sentiment on the other end of the bargain, too, as many businesses, like Schulte's, don't even try to write off the cost to produce the donated items for tax deductions.
"We enjoy giving back to the community, and this is one small way of doing that. For us to give the product to them to be handed out is benefit for us; we enjoy seeing that the product is being used instead of us having to discard it," said John Schulte, Schulte's store manager. "Frankly, if we can get some use out of it, we enjoy doing that."