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First Baptist Church to stop giving food boxes
First Baptist Church will cease handing out food boxes in March

Volunteers work to unload food items delivered by St. Mary’s Alliance Feb. 11 at the First Baptist Church in Williams.

Volunteers work to unload food items delivered by St. Mary’s Alliance Feb. 11 at the First Baptist Church in Williams.

The First Baptist Church, located across from the Safeway parking lot on Grant Avenue, will no longer hand out food boxes after March 10, according to church representatives. Food boxes are delivered through the Care and Share Food Bank, though supplies will now be limited to the Williams Food Bank. The Care and Share Food Bank is operated out of Flagstaff and delivers to a large number of distribution locations in northern Arizona.

Dianne Pender, secretary for the First Baptist Church, said the church used to be a drop off for the food bank, which handed out boxes regularly, even after scheduled disbursements - if enough food remained. The church will cease to hand out boxes after their final delivery March 10. Food will be disbursed from 10 a.m. to noon - or until the food is gone.

"We handed it out every day of the week. We'd do it once a month and then everything we had left over we stored in our food bank. If people came by for an emergency food box we would give it out to them," Pender said. "(Now) they're only going to have one place, one time a week, to get it."

She said the church has no plans to continue the emergency food boxes in the future.

"We won't be able to. We have totally shut down everything," Pender said.

Care and Share, which recently changed names to St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance, delivers food supplies to Williams, Ash Fork, Seligman, Kingman, Lake Havasu City and many other locations. The organization runs two semis each day from their Flagstaff location, covering over 90 disbursement locations across northern Arizona. Statewide, St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance operates in 13 of Arizona's 15 counties. The organization merged with the Westside Food Bank, located in the Phoenix area, in 2005. Both banks, according to information on the company's Web site, each served more than 60 million pounds of food during the 2004-05 fiscal year.

Guy Mikkelsen, with the Williams Food Bank, said the volunteer organization is ready to fill in the gap vacated by the First Baptist Church.

"Our numbers will probably go up, at least a little bit. So far we've been able to meet the needs each week," Mikkelsen said. "Hopefully with the great ongoing support that we get from the community, then we'll be able to keep on meeting the needs of the less fortunate people in our community."

The Williams Food Bank is located at 200 S. Ninth St. and hands out food boxes between 1 and 4 p.m. Fridays. Income guidelines determine eligibility for the food bank, according to Mikkelsen, as does household size. Individuals will also be asked to show identification when visiting the Williams Food Bank. The food bank plans for roughly 100 visitors each week. Construction is also under way on the bank's new building, located on their current property. The new Williams Food Bank building is scheduled to be complete by April.

"We're getting there. Our building is coming along," Mikkelsen said.

The help from St. Mary's Alliance, he said, has had a positive impact on the local food bank.

"Once a month we get a delivery of, not only commodities, but donated product. It helps us a lot, because the resources that they have are making it into our community through that relationship. With our new space coming, I think that might help us keep serving people and also help keep track of who's getting the aid," Mikkelsen said.


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