Paris’ Downtown Food Pantry completed its fifteenth year in 2024 and served more people than ever before.
“Statistics can be boring, but the numbers we’ve got for this past year blew us away,” said executive director Allan Hubbard.
The pantry served 13,416 individuals in 5,151 households. That equates to 27% of the Lamar County population. “Most of those people came regularly which is a couple times each month,” Hubbard said.
Surprisingly, of those households served 1,203 of them were new and had not gotten help at the pantry before. “The economy being what it was in 2024, it hit our county hard and people have had a hard time buying the food they need. We’re just glad to be here to help,” Hubbard said.
Pounds of food distributed totaled 2,450,769 which made more than two million meals for area residents. Operations director Chuck Burton is constantly sourcing groceries and oversees two tractor-trailer deliveries each week.
The pantry is funded by private individual donations, almost 30 local churches plus foundation grants. Three staff plus more than 200 monthly volunteers help make it all happen.
Governed by a board of directors made up of local community leaders, the pantry has been in operation since 2009 and is a proud United Way partner agency.
Downtown Food Pantry is one block northwest of the Lamar County Courthouse at 124 W. Cherry St. Find out more at downtownfoodpantry.org.
Photo cutline: Volunteers Tammy Tempelmeyer and Cindy Dykes bag groceries for a client at the Downtown Food Pantry in 2024.
