Newburgh Area Food Pantry THE NEWBURGH AREA FOOD PANTRY is located on St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish property, sharing the building with Mother Teresa's Treasures. This outreach ministry started in the 1970's at Epworth United Methodist Church. It is staffed with volunteers from several area churches, and is supported financially by many others. This is a community problem and we would like for the entire community to take a stand and help out with donations and volunteering.

The criteria to be served at our pantry is simple. You must live in Newburgh or Yankeetown and meet some income eligibility guidelines. You are entitled to come every 30 days, at which time you can shop for yourself with a guideline, or take the pre-bagged food we have put together. Either way, you end up with about 5 bags of groceries including meat and cheese.

We pride ourselves in offering laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, miscellaneous paper products, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and bar soap. These are necessary items that cannot be purchased with Food Stamps.

We also offer some basic over the counter medications, bandages, and cold remedies, and we have a whole section dedicated to children called "KID'S CORNER". Here we stock diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, shampoo, kid's toothpaste and brushes, cold remedies, pain relievers and their own Band-Aids.

We are currently serving 120-130 families per month — just from Newburgh. We turn away about 10 per week because they live out of area, but we refer them to another nearby agency.

We provide Turkeys/hams at Thanksgiving and Christmas along with all the fixins, plus a gift for each family member. At back to school time, we provide various school supplies.

As you can see, this Labor of Love is most appreciated in the community and is constantly seeking ways to make money so we do not have to compromise our standards and give less food.

Please consider how you might help us, either monetarily, collecting food, or volunteering. It is a very humbling, yet rewarding, experience.

For additional information, please call Kathy Hedge at 812-490-1000.