Food bank opens next Thursday; donations sought for the project
The town of Flomaton will be opening a food bank next Thursday that will provide food to Flomaton residents from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the community center on McCurdy Street, with plans to hold the food give-away each Thursday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During Monday afternoon's teleconference council meeting, Mayor Dewey Bondurant Jr., asked the council its thoughts on the town opening a food bank for its citizens.
“I agree,” said Councilwoman Lillian Dean. “People are not going to the grocery store because they've increased prices $2 to $3. I know that for a fact.”
Mayor Bondurant said he has received some donations to purchase food and is looking at other avenues to have food donated. He also said the town could use current employees to handle the food bank.
Councilman Roger Adkinson said the town needed to make sure they didn't have repeat customers who are abusing the program. He added that his church has temporarily shut down its food bank.
Where to hold the food bank was quickly settled with Dean saying the she felt the community center would be the best place and the rest of the council agreed.
Councilman Jim Johnson asked if the town used Librarian Kaci Boutwell at the food bank, who would be taking care of the front office. Boutwell was moved to town hall after the library was closed due to the virus shutdown.
Dean said she felt the council members could volunteer to man the food bank on a rotating basis one day a week.
Mayor Bondurant said Tuesday that he had talked with Marie Morris, who worked at the Alabama Welcome Center and Flomaton Railroad Museum before it closed due to the pandemic, and she agreed to handle the food bank with two library employees helping her.
Bondurant said his goal is to have private donations pay for the food that will be given away. He also said he's looking at possibly getting free food from other sources.
“I want to ask all the churches and individuals to donate,” Bondurant said. “This is mainly for the kids. We will be targeting families that have children.”
Due to the statewide emergency signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, the Escambia County School System suspended its free lunch program at the county schools.
Bondurant said Wednesday that at this point he had received enough money to get started and will continue to seek donations.
Anyone wanting to donate to help purchase food can send checks to Town of Flomaton Food Bank, P.O. Box 632, Flomaton, Ala., 36441.
