One Tuesday a month, the people of Kahoka see a long line of cars in a parking lot backed up to the highway. The cars are waiting to receive one thing – food from Helping Hands.
With support from the community, Helping Hands serves people like Nancie Holmes every month. Nancie started visiting the food pantry in 2008 when her husband had cancer. She had worked at the local Head Start for 21 years, but due to her husband’s health, they could not afford both food and medicine. Helping Hands allowed her family to make ends meet.
One day, while receiving food, a volunteer asked if anyone would like to help at the pantry. Since she was using the service and had seen kids at school going hungry, she felt the need to give her time. Thirteen years later, Nancie is still volunteering. Now, she is president of the board at Helping Hands.
When Nancie first volunteered, she said the town did not know much about Helping Hands. It even had negative reviews. With new leadership and some changes, the organization’s reputation improved. Word began to spread further about the pantry. Clark County Ministerial Alliance helped get information out, and the organization started putting information about Helping Hands on church bulletins and organization calendars.
“The community has helped a lot. The Alliance has gone out and talked to people,” Nancie said when speaking about the changes. “The volunteers and the community are behind us. The city recognizes us in a good way.”
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Helping Hands did not have enough resources to meet the demand for food. In response, The Ministerial Alliance donated masks and gloves and helped find volunteers to help serve. The Clark County Health Department initiated temperature checks and a sign-in sheet. With this support, the pantry transitioned from a shopping model to a drive-thru food pick-up. In April of 2020, Helping Hands was able to serve 324 people. Demand was so high there were two lines of cars going past the highway and into town. “It takes a village to run this place,” Nancie said.
Helping Hands has seen the number of people coming to receive food return to normal as the pandemic winds down. Throughout all of the changes, Nancie noticed how efficiently the drive-thru model worked. It allows people to stay in their cars in all types of weather so they can stay comfortable. The drive-thru is so successful, Helping Hands has switched to it permanently. “Most are seniors, so we will keep doing this,” Nancie said of the people they serve and how best to help them.