Celebrate Church food pantry in Knoxville is working to fight hunger in the community. 

The pantry, which has been operational for over a decade now, has switched locations several times throughout the years, and now operates out of the basement of the church. The Celebrate Church Food Pantry is open the second and fourth Wednesday of each month from 12:30-3:00 pm for anyone in the community needing food assistance. The pantry gets a majority of their food from the Food Bank of Iowa, but also encourages donations from the community. The pantry has grown tremendously over the years and in 2014 the pantry was serving around 16 households, but the pantry now serves more than 350in the community. Celebrate Church Pastor Judd Nelson says there are many reasons why they have seen such an increase in the need for food.

“There are still a lot of ramifications from Covid that people are dealing with. Obviously inflation is affecting everybody, and people having to start paying their student loans back are affecting some younger families. There is a whole gamut of reasons why people are having trouble making ends meet. That’s one of the things we’re trying to do, we’re not trying to feed families, we’re just trying to subsidize what they already have to make ends meet.” 

Hear more from Pastor Judd Nelson on a special Food Drive Friday news magazine today.