Spoofhounds help fill pantry's empty shelves

The Spoofhounds handily defeated the Savannah Savages Friday 31-14, but there was one area in which both football teams emerged as winners — a two-school charity effort that benefitted food pantries in Nodaway and Andrew counties.

On Friday afternoon before the game, several long tables in the Maryville High School commons were filled with hundreds of cans and boxes of non-perishable foodstuffs. Principal Jason Eggers said there were 1,000 packages of ramen noodles alone.

Altogether, Spoofhounds students and their families brought in around 5,000 individual food items that were boxed up and taken directly to the Maryville ministry center.

The effort began early last week when a small group of students taking an MHS world literature class decided to answer a direct challenge from some of their counterparts at Savannah High.

Before long Maryville teens Abi Shipley, Jess Pfost, Adana Miles, Tate Mattson, Emily Schreck, Cassie Holtman and Mollie Holtman had mobilized classmates into what, by week's end, had turned into a food-donation juggernaut.

Students continued bringing in bags and boxes filled, literally, with everything from soup to nuts through Friday morning, when dozens of boxes were loaded into vehicles and driven the short mile across town to the Ministry Center.

The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, is that the mass donation arrived at time when pantry stocks had fallen to a dangerously low level.

"Right now this is great because we are really low," said Rod Shain, who directs the Ministry Center's food distribution operation. "It really couldn't be at a better time for us."

Shain said the pantry is currently providing nutritional assistance to about 200 lower-income families a month, which translates to between 400 and 600 individuals. With winter coming on after a year of economic uncertainty and severe drought, the number of people in need appears unlikely to grow smaller.

Increasingly, Shain said, people seeking help from the Ministry Center are folks who work hard, but who still can't afford to feed their families.

"A lot of the people who come here are working two jobs," he said. "Some of them are single mothers with kids at home, and they just can't make it. These are not people who are not willing to work. They may be underemployed, or they may just have a part-time job. That's what a lot of employers are going to.

"It's not just a hand-out, I guess is what I'm trying to say."

At a time when the Ministry Shelves have been too bare, Shain said it is often Maryville's young people who respond to the need.

"The support we've gotten from Maryville High School is overwhelming," he said, adding that student groups at Northwest Missouri State University are conducting a number of similar efforts this month.

Such activism on the part of youth, he said, brings a double pay-off because it provides aid and comfort to those in need while creating a tradition of community service among the next generation of civic leaders.

"When you're involved at that age, it carries through to adulthood," Shain said. "I think they see that the need is there."

Though the Spoofhounds food drive has given the pantry a timely boost, Shain said more contributions are needed. Items in short supply include canned fruit, saltine crackers, fruit juice and cereal.

Donations of fresh meat and produce are also accepted by appointment, so that arrangements can be made for storage and timely distribution. For more information, call the Ministry Center's message line at (660) 582-6649.