City-Wide Food Drive

The City of Oxford and city-based employees have banded together for the first annual city-wide holiday food drive. Bins have been placed at every city government operated building, various sorority and fraternity houses, and University Sporting Goods. Non-perishable food items are being collected from now until November 16 when they will be delivered to The Pantry.

The Oxford Fire Department and Mayor Patterson will attend an event to promote the Food Drive on Saturday, November 3, at Big Star from 10:00 a.m. to noon.

For more information, contact event coordinator Sterling Swanson at 415-806-8855 or via email at saswanso@go.olemiss.edu. To reach City Hall, contact Morgan Pennington, Mayor Patterson’s assistant, at 662-232-2340 or via email at morgan@oxfordms.net.

EatingOxford.com to Donate $500 to The Pantry

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Guinness St. Patrick’s Day promotion posted here back in March. Guinness set a new Guinness World Record and made it possible for EatingOxford.com to donate $500 to The Pantry. See the official press release below.

 EatingOxford.com to Donate $500 to The Pantry

(Oxford, MS, April 24, 2012) EatingOxford.com was recently selected by Guinness to collaborate in a worldwide effort to help the company win a Guinness World Record for the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Dozens of Oxonians pitched in by pledging to celebrate with a Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day, and combined efforts around the world resulted in Guinness successfully breaking the record with 435,456 people joining the campaign.

As a thank you for exposure on the EatingOxford.com blog and pledges from Oxonians who pledged to celebrate with a Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day, Guinness made a donation to EatingOxford.com, making it possible for EatingOxford.com to donate $500 to Oxford’s local food bank The Pantry.

“Being that I own a website focused on food, it’s never far from my mind that there are people going without,” says Liz Barrett, owner of EatingOxford.com. “The Pantry has always been my charity of choice in Oxford, so when I found out that the collaboration with Guinness would give me the chance to help The Pantry, I couldn’t say no. The entire campaign was well organized and I’m glad I was able to participate.”

About The Pantry

The Pantry feeds more than 400 people every month, including elderly residents who are homebound. The organization is always looking for those who can help organize food drives or volunteer at the facility. Call 662-832-8001 if you can help. If you can assist in delivering food to the homebound, call June Rosentreter at 662-234-8063.

Food drives are an easy and motivational event to organize anywhere (offices, schools, restaurants, etc.). You can also drop off bags or boxes of food at any time (at your convenience) on the porch of The Pantry—day or night—at 713 Molly Barr Road (next door to the Oxford Police Department).

About EatingOxford.com

Founded by Liz Barrett, a magazine editor by trade, EatingOxford.com provides locals and visitors with a comprehensive listing of the restaurants in and around Oxford, along with a regularly updated blog that keeps readers abreast of what’s going on around town. To date, more than 300,000 visitors have come to read nearly 500 posts on the EatingOxford.com blog (http://blog.eatingoxford.com), helping to move it up the ranks to No.1 blog in Mississippi according to Urbanspoon.com and win it Best Website in Oxford. The website and blog combined garner 50,000 Web visits per month.

For more information about EatingOxford.com, as well as site sponsorship opportunities, contact Barrett at liz@eatingoxford.com or 662-380-6316.

Help for The Pantry

When I went to drop off the EatingOxford.com donation of $1,000 to The Pantry last week (thank you to everyone who came out to my anniversary event for helping to make this donation possible!), I was lucky enough to have longtime Pantry volunteer June Rosentreter show me around the facility.

What concerned me most were the number of bare shelves inside The Pantry despite the fact that the facility helps feed more than 400 people every month, including elderly residents who are homebound. Help comes from multiple sources such as the Memphis Food Bank and local grocers such as Walmart and Big Star (Kroger has yet to assist, so if you know anyone there, maybe you can help pull some strings). Even with this help, however, the number of Oxonians who need assistance continues to grow, resulting in a greater need for people like you and me to help when we can.

If you’re someone who likes to volunteer, The Pantry is always looking for folks to help organize food drives and to volunteer at the facility. Call 662-832-8001 if this sounds like something up your alley. If you’d be interested in helping to deliver food to the homebound, call June directly at 662-234-8063.

Food drives are an easy and fun motivational event to organize anywhere (offices, schools, restaurants, etc.). You can also drop off bags or boxes of food at any time (at your convenience) on the porch of The Pantry—day or night—at 713 Molly Barr Road (next door to the Oxford Police Department).

June provided the following wish list of food items that The Pantry is always in need of:

• 1 lb. box oatmeal – regular or 1 minute
• 1 lb. bag orbox  2minute grits
• 1 lb. package spaghetti
• 1 lb.  bag rice
• Canned fruit
• Canned meats
• Canned evaporated milk
• Canned tomatoes
• Canned soup:   chicken noodle
• Canned beans
• Snack puddings and pudding mixes
• Dry milk
• 5 lb. bag sugar
• 5 lb. bag self rising flour
• 5 lb. bag self rising meal
• 1 ½ pints or 24 oz.  bottle of Canola or vegetable oil
•  Peanut Butter

Note:  More people can be served if smaller bags of food such as rice, cereal, dry milk, etc. are provided rather than large bags.  This also leaves less likelihood of waste.

A Time for Sharing

We sometimes take for granted the fact that we’re able to go out to eat on a whim while others in our community may be struggling to feed their family that day.

While hunger is a problem we should be thinking about all year, the holidays seem to be the time of year that the topic comes up the most–a time when family is together and everyone is more inclined to share with others.

So this year, between all of the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and party planning, think of how you can help feed another family by contacting one of Oxford’s local donation centers such as The Pantry, which feeds around 100 families each week.

Consider heading up a food drive at your place of employment; it doesn’t take much for everyone to go through their cupboards or do a little inexpensive shopping. All you have to do is gather up the items and deliver them.

You’ll walk away from the experience feeling some of what the holidays are truly all about.

• The Pantry: 662-915-7421, 713 Molly Barr Rd. (next to the Oxford Police Dept.)