Over 780,000 meals served by Muskingum Co. Hunger Network in 2019

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Last year, 782,434 meals were served by the Muskingum County Hunger Network.

14 food pantries in the county served 432,783 meals were served. Four soup kitchens served 349,651 meals.

Executive Director for Christ’s Table Keely Warden says the different pantries and soup kitchens rely on the generosity of different businesses and each other.

“Many people don’t realize a big part of what Christ’s Table does everyday is you see this big green truck out there on the road and we go out to all the big stores everyday and pick up the food that may be composted or go to waste. Just because it’s past its shelf life doesn’t mean it’s past its life. So we are blessed to be able to go out to all the stores, pick up all kinds of good things and then what we do is each day we get that to a different food pantry or or different hot meal program. So we’re sharing our wealth with everyone in this community.”

The Treasurer for the Muskingum County Hunger Network and Coordinator for the South Zanesville Food Pantry Joyce Krouskoupf says the truck for Christ’s Table helps supply the area’s food pantries with different items everyday.

“With everything that we get from the Christ’s Table Truck, they pick up from several different stores, so we’re very blessed with them being able to do that and so they’re able to bring produce, pastries that day and then we’re able to give that out to our clients. So it’s not only our pantry but it’s 15 other pantries.”

On Monday, over 200 gallons of milk was taken from Sam’s Club and shared between different pantries across the county.