Local Food Pantry

These about change good for local food pantry.

When people in eastern Taney County need food assistance, they turn to My Neighbor's Pantry.

"I've had clients tell me they'd starve to death without this place," said volunteer Charlene Braden.

However, there has been a change in My Neighbor's Pantry that officials hope will be to everyone's benefit. The pantry, formed in 2003, is now under the control of the Branson food pantry Christian Action Ministries.

CAM Executive Director Pat Davis said those who use the pantry will not see too many changes. She wanted it made clear that those who use the pantry will not have to drive to Branson.

"It will stay in Forsyth," she said. "They serve a lot of people in Rockaway Beach, Merriam Woods, Forsyth, Bradleyville and Taneyville. They are spread out."

Jan McCabe, who founded the pantry in Rockaway Beach in 2003 with her husband, Ernie, said that she first realized the area needed its own pantry when people in the area were not able to travel to Forsyth for free meals each day at her church.

"I asked around and found a lot of people didn't go to CAM because it was too much trouble to drive to Branson," McCabe said.

The pantry quickly outgrew its first storage area in the back of a restaurant, then spent six years in a discounted space until that building was sold. The pantry spent about a year under the control of Gift of Hope, the charitable arm of the National Enzyme Company, which had a building for the pantry to use. Davis said Gift of Hope asked CAM to take over the pantry. The merge officially took place June 1.

McCabe, who is no longer involved with the pantry, said she is excited about CAM's involvement.

"I'm real pleased about it," she said. "They have a method and it works."

Davis said that those who use My Neighbor's Pantry would arrive once a week for donations. Now they will receive all their donations once a month.

"That will save them gas and time," Davis said.