Dear Editor,
Community Food for Creswell would like to thank Creswell First! for our two 2018 Community Service Fund awards, totaling $1,764.
We purchased four stationary wire shelf units for use in our walk-in cooler, four mobile wire shelf units used for overflow foods in the walk-in cooler and freezer, a ramp for entrance into the walk-in freezer, and three bus bins.
The mobile shelves can hold up to 800 pounds on each of their three shelves. The stationary shelves can hold as much as 600 pounds on each of their three shelves. We are able to fit three mobile units in the walk-in cooler at one time, allowing us to much more easily manage large volumes of food, such as the influx of seasonal produce or a truckload of eggs.
The most important need in a food pantry is to store food as efficiently as possible in order to maintain a strong food supply and reduce waste. The addition of the new shelves has truly helped us to better meet that need.
The new ramp into the walk-in freezer allows us to roll the food in on carts rather than carrying the heavy boxes. We use bus bins to display our fresh produce each week, as our customers shop.
We don’t receive egg donations consistently, but when we do it can be a big donation. Over a two week period this spring, we received over 2,000 pounds of fresh eggs from Tangled Orchard Farm.
Thanks to the new cooler shelves, were were able to accept the donations and store the eggs. Our Food Pantry families received one to five dozen eggs each week for eleven weeks!
We were grateful to have the storage capacity to manage such a large supply. We were also grateful to Dr Matthew Bahen for donating 1,000 new egg cartons just days before the eggs came-completely unplanned!
Susan Blachnik
Creswell