LAURINBURG — The staff at The Laurinburg Exchange was once again impressed with the support of the community on the diaper drive they hosted during the month of July, which brought more than 1,400 diapers and 35 packs of baby wipes for Church Community Services.
“We are so appreciative of all that the community has done to help raise the plentiful supply of baby needs, such as diapers and wipes for our clients,” said Denise Riggins. “As you know these items cannot be paid for with Food Nutrition Supplement funding and are not available to us through the state so we are happy to be able to make this additional offering to clients for as long as possible.”
The decision to collect the products stemmed after an interview with new staff members at Church Community Services when they mentioned baby items were items they did not get much of but were much needed by their clients.
“We collected diapers because we wanted to give back to the community,” said Holly Goodwin, administrative assistant to the CNO/VP patient care services at Scotland Health Care System. “with all that is happening around us, everyone is busy but we have seen amazing community support for our health care system and front line heroes. Our community has a need and we want to help.
“The year 2020 was declared the ‘The Year of the Nurse,’” continued Goodwin. “Community service is one of our initiatives at SHCS for the Year of the Nurse Celebration, and when Bebe Holt, VP Patient Care Services and CNO, saw the invitation from the Laurinburg Exchange to collect Diapers and Wipes for Church Community Services, she shared the opportunity with the team and everyone jumped on board to participate.”
“At this time we are still open to the public for anyone needing supplemental food and we are seeing more clients than ever needing emergency assistance with utilities and rent or mortgage,” said Riggins. “In the month of July, we helped 1,169 individual ‘shoppers’ to receive food for their families, totaling to 2,844 persons.
”Of these, 86 families were new clients,” continued Riggins.
The food bank is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
“Mondays and Wednesdays we have a large variety of foods supplied free to us from the NC Food Bank,” said Riggins. “These items are already bagged and we allow one customer inside at a time to ensure as much safety as is possible.
“We encourage clients to come in every two weeks for this assistance,” said Riggins. “On Fridays, we are proud to offer 12 cans of soup donated to each individual by our local Campbell’s Soup operation. Clients may receive this weekly.
While not technically open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, employees are at the food pantry among a small group of dedicated volunteers bagging foods, sorting and hanging clothing. They are also seeing clients a few at a time in the clothing closet.
To visit the Clothing Closet, residents must call and make an appointment.
The Food Pantry and Clothing Closet are located at 108 Gill St. in Laurinburg.
“Our special thanks go out to The Exchange, to Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church and to the Scotland Health Care System heroes who donated these special items for the littlest ones in our community,” said Riggins. “Thank you also to the community members that took the time and donated.”
JJ Melton can be reached at [email protected]
The Link LonkAugust 05, 2020 at 01:10AM
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Community steps up again, this time with diapers, wipes - Laurinburg Exchange
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