The McCook Food Pantry operates all year long but as we come up to the holiday
season and with the recent focus on food benefits, food insecurity is becoming a more
frequent topic of discussion.
Fran Allacher, a lead volunteer for the McCook Food Pantry, spoke at the McCook
Rotary Club earlier this week and noted that the organization saw its highest number of
visitors in October 2025.
Having served McCook, Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas for the past 45 years, the
pantry saw its largest number of visits since records began in 1986. Last month, 318 families and
428 individuals utilized the McCook Food Pantry.
Another telling statistic can be found on the form that visitors fill out. There is a box they check
if there are kids under 18 in the household. That has jumped from the standard 45% to 60% in
October. These families with kids are struggling to get food on the table and turning to others for
help.
For stability at the food pantry, families can only visit once a month but there have been
exceptions lately. Again, families with kids have been coming in more frequently because as
anyone with small people knows, it is hard to keep up with growth spurts, teenage appetites and
kids’ relentless desire for snacks.
Regardless of the rules, “we are going to help them,” Fran said about their continued to desire to
take care of the less fortunate.
What are the reasons for the uptick in use of the McCook Food Pantry? The reasons are as
numerous as the people who utilize the organization. Regardless, the community needs to step in
and help those who are struggling just to put food on their plates.
The ways to help are numerous, from donating time to volunteer at the food pantry to donations
of food. I asked Fran if a donation of money was the best way to support the food pantry,
especially if they could purchase food more efficiently and at better costs.
While they will always take funds, her answer surprised me. They would actually prefer a
cardboard flat filled with jars of peanut butter. Why? Because it takes less volunteer manpower,
something the McCook Pantry regularly struggles with. If they receive peanut butter jars in a
cardboard flat, they simply slide it onto the shelf and it is ready for visitors. A financial donation
is still appreciated but requires the volunteer to go to the store, purchase the items, return to the
pantry and restock the shelves.
But what if you can’t personally afford to make a food or financial donation?
Volunteers to work the McCook Food Pantry are always needed. Open from 1 to 4 p.m. on
weekdays, at least three volunteers are working. Other hours are used to stock shelves, run to the
store to pickup up donated items or perhaps one of the most unglamorous jobs: removing broken
eggs from a carton to create an unbroken dozen.
But another issue is the age of the volunteers. As Fran put it, “we aren’t spring chickens” but
didn’t offer up the average age of the volunteers.
And this isn’t light work these volunteers are doing. They are lifting, sorting, shelving items.
With each bag distributed to visitors averaging 10 pounds, that is a lot of effort put forth by the
volunteers. In 2024, Fran estimated that the food pantry gave away 150,000 pounds of food.
Each family receives approximately 50 pounds of food during each visit, which means a lot of
weight handled by the volunteers.
Between all the various duties, more than 100 people are involved in keeping the McCook Pantry
going, including volunteers from SWATS and Hands of Heartland stocking shelves, MNB Bank
employees unloading food trucks and many others who make this happen on a daily basis.
Fran noted that the work just gets done. But it gets done because people step up to help unload
cans of green beans. It gets done because people donate money to buy bags of oatmeal. It gets
done because people hold food drives to stock the shelves.
Our community has not shied away from helping in the past and now is the time to step up
however we can to help those who need a little extra boost right now.
***
Local McCook churches are coming together to help ease the burden of having enough food to
eat. Be on the lookout next week for information about meal kits which will be available to
anyone who needs help getting food on the table or knows of someone who needs a little
assistance to keep their family fed.
There will also be opportunities to help prepare the meal kits as well as donate to offset the cost
of the project. It is a great example of people coming together locally to help their friends and
family make an our community an even better place to call home.
