The Perry Area Food Pantry, currently in transition out of its shared location with the New Opportunities Dallas County Family Development Center, received an unlooked for shot in the arm Thursday in the form of a $1,000 grant from the Southeast Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The Rev. Jeremy Winter, pastor of the Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Perry and a representative of the ELCA, presented the grant funds to the Rev. Paul Burrow, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Perry and treasurer of the Perry Area Food Pantry.
The ELCA grant will support the pantry’s efforts to bring diversity to the dinner table by supplying more foods preferred by the pantry’s Latino and Hispanic clients, such as tortillas, jalapenos, salsa and similar foods.
“The Perry Area Food Pantry wishes to provide more foods cherished by our Hispanic friends in the Perry Community School District,” said Burrow in accepting the grant award. “Often these food items are not a part of the donations made to the pantry and often are not available through the Food Bank of Iowa. These funds will be used in the coming year to make such purchases.”
Winter presented the award at the November meeting of the Perry Ministerial Association at the Hotel Pattee. So far this year, the Southeast Iowa Synod of the ELCA has awarded $14,750 in grants to various efforts to help fight hunger, with several grants still to be awarded.
Donations for the pantry were earned with a little more labor Oct. 29 at the First Christian Church in Perry when the Food Pantry Challenge led to pies in the face for challenge winners Lou Hoger and the Rev. Andrea Brownlee, pastor of the First Christian Church.
