Canyon Media to host food drive for Switchpoint food pantry

Inside the Switchpoint food pantry, St. George, Utah, March 17, 2020 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — With donations to the Switchpoint Community Resource Center food pantry down and demand high due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canyon Media and its radio stations are holding a food drive Saturday at Switchpoint.

Canyon Media offices in St. George, Utah, March 2020 | Photo by Aaron Crane, St. George News

“Everyone’s struggling right now,” said Lennon Jones, Canyon Media’s promotions specialist. “Switchpoint especially is feeling the effect. They haven’t had as many donations, so we wanted to get together with them and do something to help those in the community who are struggling.”

St. George News reported last month that Switchpoint was beginning to feel the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on needed supplies and manpower. Food donations, as well as donations of volunteer hours and funds, began to go down.

“These are scary times,” Carol Hollowell, Switchpoint’s executive director, said in a video posted on the center’s April 7 email newsletter. “As we face this COVID-19 pandemic, it affects the most vulnerable among us.”

Demands for Switchpoint’s services, which focus on the homeless and others in need, has risen in the wake of the pandemic’s rise, particularly where the food pantry is concerned.

Prior to the pandemic, Switchpoint’s food pantry regularly served 400-600 households each week, including seniors, veterans and children.

“It is a humbling time for the 100’s of recently unemployed, who for the first time in their lives must depend on this resource to feed their families,” Hollowell said in the newsletter. “We appreciate our volunteers who greet them with compassion and an encouraging smile.”

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Items that Switchpoint is asking for specifically are canned meats like tuna, SPAM and turkey that provide a source of protein.

Linda Stay, Switchpoint’s director of development, said macaroni and cheese and peanut butter are also in high demand. Other items include take-out boxes that Switchpoint’s soup kitchen can use in giving food to clients, plastic forks and disposable gloves.

Canyon Media radio stations, such as 95.9 The Hawk, KONY Country and others, will be at the Switchpoint Community Resource Center, 948 N. 1300 West in St. George, from 10 a.m. to noon this Saturday for the food drive.

Switchpoint is also open to receiving donations 24 hours daily. Those who drop food off at the pantry during its operating hours won’t have to get out of their vehicles, as volunteers will take the food out for them in order to maintain social distancing guidelines.

Event details

  • What: Canyon Media food drive for the Switchpoint food pantry.
  • Where: Switchpoint Community Resource Center, 948 N. 1300 West, St. George.
  • When: Saturday, April 18, 10 a.m to noon.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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