Sparta-White County YMCA Giving Out Fresh Food

Every Thursday in October the Sparta-White County YMCA will be giving out 30 pound boxes of fresh food.

This food distribution comes from $1 billion in funding for the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. Sparta-White County YMCA Board of Directors Secretary Topher Wiles said the YMCA was contacted at a critical time to be a distribution site.

“We have seen an uptick in some of the local food banks and requests in the last few weeks and an unprecedented one,” Wiles said. “A couple of our food banks have set some records, so we said let’s see if we can use this to help offset some of the costs and help out within the community.”

Locals can come by the back parking lot from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM to receive their food box. Wiles said there will be fresh dairy, produce and meat in each box.

“It’s gonna have fresh milk in it, it’s gonna have 10 to 12 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables,” Wiles said. “It’s gonna have a dairy mix in it, cheese or cottage cheese something like that and it’s gonna have between five to six pounds of meat.”

With those big boxes, Wiles said there’s a need for volunteers to do the heavy lifting. Which could benefit students looking to beef up their resume.

“We’re also gonna be keeping track of the volunteer hours, that way if there are any high school seniors or college students who are needing some community volunteer service hours on their log,” Wiles said. “We’ll be able to help them log that in.”

Volunteers can sign up through the Sparta-White County YMCA website and Facebook page. Wiles said the goal is to give all 1,440 boxes of food away on Thursday.