Pantry crisis avoided

On Friday Sept. 5 SCO closed it’s pantry doors to clients for the first time in 19 years.  It was only noon and the cupboards were bare.  In spite of the fact that donations were up 5% from the previous year the demand of growing numbers of people in crisis outran our ability to keep up.  Little did we know on that sad day that it was to be the beginning of a huge outpouring of generosity.

Some weeks earlier Orange County Register reporter Greg Hardesty had done a story but it kept being delayed.  Miraculously on the very day the pantry closed we were notified the story would run two days later and on a Sunday morning (the largest readership day) AND on the front page.  Greg was able to mention in the article that we had closed that Friday. Tthe response was incredible.  Help came from everywhere.  We emailed about 60 churches and temples that have grown in support over the past year.  The result was a hurge outpouring.  In fact on the very Sunday the article appeared two days after we closed for the afternoon one of our volunteers met a protestant family, a catholic family and a jewish family in the same aisle of the grocery store – all were buying food for South County Outreach.  The crisis was alleviated and more donations have begun to arrive. However daily numbers are increasing steadily in these difficult times – still our community has proven that “Together We Can Make a Difference!”
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