07/15/2024
We’re so Blessed to serve our community in this ministry. We’re also very Blessed to help Sharon serve her neighbors with love.
After decades of serving as a teacher, Sharon planned to spend her retirement checking off her reading list. Instead, she’s been busy with a new way to help her community.
She and her niece regularly visit GFA Pantry in Gentry, picking up food for multiple neighbors who live in her senior apartment complex and can’t go to the pantry themselves.
Helping others “is good for us, the ones who do it and the ones who get to receive it,” she said.
While dropping off food, one neighbor told Sharon they “love that the food pantry is unconditional,” and that “they are there to help and not to judge.”
Another neighbor told Sharon, “I appreciate their goodwill and their good food and seeing that some of us old folks have the nourishment that we need, that we otherwise might not have access to. Their concern is to be commended.”
The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank supplies food to the GFA Pantry, one of 110+ agency partners across the region. Housed within The Assembly Gentry church, the pantry provides help with food, toiletries and household items each month.
There are no income or residency requirements to receive help. All someone needs to do is fill out a form when they visit.
Expressing gratitude for GFA Pantry and the Food Bank’s support, Sharon shared, “With the Food Bank, we’re able to have very good food, and it helps us stretch our retirement pensions.”
The GFA Pantry is open every Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. They are located at 821 E. Main Street in Gentry. They can be contacted at 662-727-5157.
To connect with additional Agency Partners and resources, check out our Find Food Map at www.nwafoodbank.org/find-food.
To make a one-time donation to support families like Sharon's, visit www.nwafoodbank.org/donate.
[Photo is representative of neighbor. Courtesy of Canva.]
