The Community Services of Starke County staff is gearing up for the winter season. Cooler weather is right around the corner and they will soon be taking applications for energy assistance to households that meet income guidelines.
Cecilia Torres, Services Coordinator at the Starke County Food Pantry is seeing some donations coming into the facility which helps the 220 families the pantry serves each month.
“We’ve had a lot of organizations, a lot of people making donations, especially of the fresh vegetables. We’re really appreciative of that,” said Torres.
Cecilia Torres, Services Coordinator at Community Services of Starke County, says the community has stepped up to the plate with donations to the Food Pantry.
Only three weeks ago, we were reporting that the Food Pantry had no food on the shelves and only one package of hot dogs was in the meat section.
Torres especially wanted to thank officials of the Starke County 4-H Fair Livestock Auction for directing bidders to the food pantry. A number of the winning bidders gave their purchases to the Food Pantry.
Cecilia said the bidders had turkeys, ducks and chickens dressed for distribution.
The Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry is in need of donations.
“Our shelves are just about bare, there’s nothing on them,” said Cecilia Torres, Services Coordinator. “More and more people are turning to the Food Pantry and donations are down. We receive no government subsidies at all except for commodities and we haven’t received those in almost three months. We get our food from churches, organizations, and individuals who open up their pocketbooks and their hearts to us. We’ve gotten a few dollar donations but we’ve been spending over $1,200 a month on meat alone. Right now I have a couple of packages of hot dogs and that’s it.”
The food pantry at Community Services of Starke County is getting dangerously low of products. Joan Haugh, the Executive Director of Community Services, said the need is even greater now than at this time in previous years.
Community Services of Starke County is announcing a fare increase for transportation beginning July 1st.
“The reason why we had to do an increase is because of the cost of gasoline,” said Director Joan Haugh. “We put this off and we’re not seeing a break. We’re already six months into this year and we’ve almost spent as much as we did last year. With that cost increasing, we felt that we had to do something so we are increasing as of July 1st. The people that we’ve already told are regular riders and they’ve been asking us for some time when we are going to be raising our rates. How can we afford not to? I think they understand but I just wanted to let the public know too that there is a slight increase.”
The annual Volunteer Fair is this Saturday, April 30th from 9:00 a.m. to Noon at the Knox High School. The Volunteer Fair is sponsored by the Community Services of Starke County, Northwest Indiana Action Corporation, United Way of Porter County and Healthlinc.
Do you know where you can volunteer in Starke County? Over fifteen agencies will be present with volunteer opportunities for persons of all ages.
The Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry is running low on food items and Cecilia Torres, Services Coordinator at Community Services of Starke County, says now is the time to donate.
“Right now, we’re in dire need of food,” said Torres. “We have been serving over 250 families a month. As fast as we get food on the shelves, it goes right back out. In addition to regular canned goods and non-perishables, we could also use money. It’s been about every week or so that we’ve been ordering meat and it’s really adding up. We do need any help that we could possibly get.”
The Senior Volunteer of the Year and the Older Hoosier of the Year award winners were announced Thursday during a luncheon at the Bass Lake Fire Department.
“Today, we are honoring all of our volunteers for the past two years, for 2009 and 2010,” said Community Services of Starke County Director, Joan Haugh. “This is just our opportunity to give them a little credit for all of the many hours of service they’ve put in or the donations they’ve given to support our programs and the food pantry. We’re very grateful for them and if anyone out there would like to volunteer, please call me.”
James Skibbe, the State of Indiana Eligibility Manager for the Starke County office of the Division of Family Resources, will present an upcoming program entitled “Understanding the Spenddown.”
Persons on Medicaid have a difficult time understanding the concept and reasoning behind the spenddown that is required before Medicaid funding can be used to meet physician or hospital expenses.
Nominations are being accepted for Starke County’s Senior Volunteer of the Year and Older Hoosier of the Year.
Community Services of Starke County is accepting nominations for these two honorary awards. The Board will decide the winners for each category. The honorees will be entered into the Area 1 competition. Entry forms are available at the Community Services of Starke County on Culver Road in Knox. Forms must be received by March 15th.
After a recent food drive, George Mammarella of Economy Auto Sales presented Community Services of Starke County Diector, Joan Haugh, with a cash and food donations of over $1,200 for the Starke County Food Pantry.
Knox Mayor, Rick Chambers, delivered 233 pounds of food to the Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry last week after a food drive at Knox City Hall.
A big thank you goes out to many people from the Knox Kiwanis Club. President, Todd Wallsmith, was in Wednesday to thank Knox Community Schools, Knox High School teachers, Dean’s Food of Rochester, the Knox Center Township Fire Department Auxiliary, Community Services of Starke County, the SCILL Center, and members of the Kiwanis, among others.
The Starke County Community Foundation made the holiday bright for many community organizations during its 2010 Grant Award Banquet. Over $24,000 was awarded on Monday, December 6th at the Community Center in Knox.
The grants are part of the Community Foundation’s Unrestricted Funds which allow the Community Foundation to assess the greatest needs of the community and assist the individual agency programs. Since 1998, the Community Foundation has awarded over $1.7 million to local organizations and projects that make a difference in Starke County.
The instructors and students at the SCILL Center in Knox recently held a coat drive for those in need this winter season. The coats were delivered Thursday to the Community Services of Starke County building where they will be distributed.
Members of the Knox Student Council, National Honor Society and dedicated volunteers assembled food baskets, Thursday, at the Community Services of Starke County building for the less fortunate families in Knox. Students and members of the Knox Kiwanis Club will distribute food to those families in Knox.
The Starke County Abate Organization will make Christmas a little brighter for many families in the county. Club President, Terry Young, says there’s going to be a party.
The Community Services of Starke County general membership meeting will be held on Thursday, December 16th at 8:30 a.m. CT at the facility. The public is invited to attend but only regular members will be entitled to vote on program plans and the Executive Board appointees for 2011.
The SCILL Center staff and students are collecting coats for children and adults this holiday season.
“Anybody that has a good, used coat that they’d like to drop off, rather than take to Goodwill or put in a yard sale, you may donate it during this coat drive,” said SCILL Center Instructor, Mark Anderson. “In Knox, you can drop them off at Community Services of Starke County, Davis Auto, Integrity Skill in the Knox Mall, Starke United, or the WIC office. In North Judson, you can drop them off at Love INC., Bailey’s, or there’s a box at the North Judson Plaza. When we accumulate all of the coats, we’re going to take them to the Knox Schools and they have names of people throughout the community and a lot of students that need these coats and they’re going to disburse them. We’d like to try and end the program on December 5th.”
For more information, call (574) 772-8001.
