Myrtle Beach area charities ready to roll

Several area charities that provide food hope that a new cooler and delivery truck will help bring in more food as the demand is growing.

The Wal-Mart Foundation has awarded the Lowcountry Food Bank $126,000, which helped with the purchase of a much-needed cooler for the Grand Strand branch and a food delivery truck that will be used among all of the Lowcountry Food Bank's locations.

The Lowcountry Food Bank, which is based in Charleston, serves 10 coastal counties in the state, including Horry and Georgetown counties.

"I would like to think that the additional cooler and delivery truck would entice people to donate more," said Roy Pridgen, manager at the Grand Strand Regional Food Center, which currently serves about 60 agencies in Horry and Georgetown counties. "Myrtle Beach is a generous place," Pridgen said.

Officials with area nonprofit agencies are hoping the same as they are reporting 10 percent to 50 percent increases in the number of people they serve. Although several agencies are starting to get valuable food items such as milk, fresh eggs and bread, they would like to receive more frozen and fresh items such as meats and produce now that the local food bank has a greater capacity to store such items.

"It's been a slow process to get [the cooler] here," said Daniel Krawchuck, pastor of Tabernacle of Meetings in Surfside Beach. Hopefully, it will push stores and individuals to give a little bit more, said Krawchuck, who on average gets about 3,000 pounds of food a week from the Grand Strand food bank. Last year, the church distributed 93,000 pounds of food from its pantry, which currently is seeing a nearly 50 percent increase in its clientele.

Pridgen said the 24-foot-wide cooler will give the Grand Strand food bank the ability to store frozen items longer and keep produce and bakery items refrigerated and fresh longer.

Also, "it will help us store larger quantities and put less pressure on us to move items out faster, especially during the summer," Pridgen said.

The 18-foot refrigerated truck will allow the Lowcountry Food Bank, including the Grand Strand branch, to accept a higher amount of perishable food and give the food bank a greater ability to make food deliveries to food assistance agencies that are far from their distribution centers, officials said. The truck can hold more than 10,000 pounds of food at one time.

Doris Johnson, director of the food pantry at Buckcreek Baptist Church in Longs, said they are "thrilled" to have a cooler and truck that will allow them to get more perishable and healthy foods.

"It's good because we're equipped to take anything we can get from here," said Johnson, who gets 3,500 to 4,000 pounds of food a week from the local food bank.

"We can take fresh produce from [the Grand Strand food bank] and distribute it in the community," Johnson said. She said the church's food pantry has seen a one-third increase in the number of people it serves since this time last year.

"This time of year traditionally is a busy time for us," said Margaret Owens, executive director at the North Strand Helping Hand. "We have a lot of first time clients. People are still laid off. We're real excited about a lot of changes at the Lowcountry Food Bank."

Owens, whose agency is seeing about a 10 percent increase in the number of people it helps, said she hopes the cooler and truck will allow the food bank to get more meat - the biggest food item where there is a shortage - and fresh vegetables instead of just canned goods.

"Meat has to be handled in a different way," Owens said. "With the new cooler, it's a wonderful way for them to store it and convenient for the agencies" that travel to get the food items.

"Where before, they didn't have anywhere to store it," Owens said. "It's a sad day when we open our freezer and don't have any meat. Families, especially, love to have meats to be able to make traditional meals."