Thanksgiving came a couple days early to the Salvation Army Food Pantry.

Tuesday, November 20, 2001

Thanksgiving came a couple days early to the Salvation Army Food Pantry.

Some $2,200 in food donations from Motor Inn Company, its employees, and Hy-Vee Food Store was delivered to the pantry Monday.

David Christensen, president of Motor Inn, said the car dealership had gotten a letter in the mail from the Salvation Army requesting assistance.

&uot;I was about to set it aside, then something told me to pull it back,&uot; Christensen said.

He said he faxed the letter to Hy-Vee store Manager Al Weisert and asked how much of some of the most-needed items could be purchased for a given amount.

&uot;Then we got donations from our employees, and Hy-Vee also donated,&uot; Christensen said.

&uot;Right now everybody’s sending things to New York, but we need help here,&uot; he said. &uot;We’d like to challenge others to bring donations in. It’s a good time of year for that, and a lot of people are depending on this place right now.&uot;

Capt. Jamie Pennington, the Salvation Army’s commanding officer, said the donation is a welcome one.

&uot;We’re experiencing between three and four times the need as we were seeing a year ago,&uot; Pennington said, adding that includes between 200 and 250 Farmland Foods employees and their families.

&uot;About half of them haven’t found jobs yet,&uot; he said. &uot;Even if you remove the Farmland families, we’re seeing double what we had last year.&uot;

He said the pantry gave out 38,000 pounds of food last month.

&uot;We’re pretty exhausted in our supplies, especially the basic staples like fruits and vegetables, which is what they brought in today. We try to have a well-rounded supply on hand for when people come in,&uot; Pennington said.

&uot;We count on the generosity of the community at Thanksgiving and Christmas to supply the pantry for a couple of months,&uot; he said. &uot;We’re appreciative of all of it.&uot;