Newport’s MLK Community Center Launches Mobile Food Pantry
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport has launched its new Mobile Food Pantry.
“We believe that being a community center means adapting to meet the needs of the community. We didn’t want to stop at bringing nonperishables out into the community – we wanted to bring fresh ingredients like meat, milk, eggs, and produce, too. That’s where the idea for this custom Mobile Food Pantry came from. We couldn’t have done it without Nancy and Doug Horsey, who really allowed this dream come to life,” said Heather Hole Strout, Executive Director of the MLK.
The pantry was launched during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, December 5.
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The MLK Community Center piloted the Mobile Food Pantry program in 2018, bringing food, personal care, and household items to low-income housing complexes across Newport County, where lack of transportation is a common barrier.
The new state-of-the-art vehicle has refrigeration for perishables like meat, milk, produce, and eggs, more storage for pantry items, on-site data collection, and will allow the MLK to serve even more people in the community.
In 2019, the MLK has made over 30 site visits throughout the county and served over 900 Newport County residents through the Mobile Food Pantry program alone.
PHOTO: Kate Whitney Lucey/MLK Community Center
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