The Perry Area Food Pantry is making its last push before Christmas Day happens next week.

Manager Lou Hoger says they’ve seen a slight increase this year, as high as 28 households per pantry session, when it is open twice per week. He points out the numbers used to be closer to 20 households. Hoger notes one of the more unique increases from people from different nationalities. 

“For a while we had a lot more Haitians coming in. The difficulty at that point was the French Creole. I have forms, which is the federal form we use, I have those in probably ten languages and that was not one of the languages. But then I’ve also within the last month had passports, as ID, from at least five different African countries.”      

Hoger believes most of the increases are due to the state of the economy and that it’s forced some people into having to utilize the pantry when they maybe haven’t before.

“We have people who (have) working where if their child is home from school sick they must be off of work and they don’t have that paycheck coming in. It doesn’t take too many of those crises to put somebody in a tough spot. We’ve had some who come in there and they’re just excited because they are going to start their new job in a few days, but they just need something to get them to that first paycheck.” 

Hoger adds donations can be made when the pantry is open on Tuesdays from 10am-12:30pm or Thursdays from 3-6pm. People can also call Hoger at 515-570-2975 to arrange when to drop off their donations.