Wednesday, June 19 2013 11:01 AM EDT2013-06-19 15:01:25 GMT
Rail repair work is nearly complete following a train derailment in Jackson County.
Rail repair work is nearly complete following a train derailment in Jackson County.
MURPHYSBORO, IL (KFVS) -
The Murphysboro Food Pantry has been helping feed hungry families in Jackson County for the past 25 years.
"People are thinking about the holidays," said Jane Williams at the Murphysboro Food Pantry. "They would like to be able to give their family something special on the table."
But, Williams points out that's not easy when you're unemployed, or can't work at all. Every month hundreds of families would go hungry if it weren't for the pantry.
"The last couple of months have been tremendous. We're doing 800-900 families a month. It's just increasing every month."
The pantry is a USDA approved food pantry. And it does get some of it's food from the food bank in Saint Louis.
But, Williams says this past month they didn't get anything from the food bank.
"Which means the volunteers and donations from the community are vital," said Williams. "Without their continued support of either money or food, we would close our doors. Or we would definitely have to cut back to just a couple of days a week."
At this time the pantry is open five days a week. And it's on pace to provide food to more than 33-thousand families in Jackson County this year.
"We've given out more than a thousand bags of Thanksgiving Day fixings. As well as over five hundred turkey vouchers," said Williams. "So we're pleased that we've been able to make Thanksgiving Day a little more special for some people. And to help them make some Thanksgiving Day memories for people that might not be able to do that otherwise."
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Police have identified two men accused of stealing thousands of pounds of watermelons from local grocery stores. Beaverton police were called out to the WinCo Foods store on Cedar Hills Boulevard the
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