Jenks Community Food Bank Needs Help To Fill Their Shelves

Shelves that are typically stacked to the rafters sit empty at the Jenks Community Food Bank on Friday, as volunteers work to prepare for around 40 families to come grocery shopping on Saturday morning.

"We have people that are waiting in line for hours before we open the doors," Volunteer Coordinator Valerie Mann said.

Mann said this time of the year is always slim; the food bank relies heavily on food drives at schools, but in between cycles and before the holiday rush food items continue to dwindle down.

"This is the normal, annual, 'it feels desperate' situation," she said. "We almost always do."

Mann said there's so many ways you can help. Monetary donations, of course, are always good, but she said it can also be as simple as picking up an extra jar of peanut butter at the grocery store and leaving it inside the donation box on the west side of the building, which is always unlocked.

Mann said they open their doors every Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., with dozens of families showing up each time.

"The people who come to us don't come because they just feel like it," she said. "They need it, they need the help."

Whether it's a family of two, or 12, Mann said they're scraping by, doing their best to make sure no one goes hungry

They hug us, they cry, they tell us they couldn't have made it without it," she said.

Visit the Jenks Community Food Bank website for contact information to learn about volunteering and donating. Mann said you can even set up a recurring donation to make giving simple and easy.