UPDATE: Who Will Feed the Hungry? Valley Junction Merchants Step Up

In just three and one-half hours Thursday, more than 400 food items and $300 were collected to help ease food shortages in metro area food pantries. The emergency food drive in  continues through Saturday

More food is needed, said Christy Cobb, owner of The Write Touch who organized the food drive in response to a decision by the Des Moines Area Religious Council to cut by 40 percent the items stocked in weekly food boxes for needy residents.

A collection truck will be parked near  at the corner of Fifth and Maple streets all day both Friday and Saturday. Tallgrass Grocery Co-op, 116 Fifth St., is also collecting food donations as part of the drive.

"It was unbelievable," Cobb's sister, Barbara, wrote in an e-mail. "People would go to Hy-Vee and then just stop by with four bags of food."

DMARC made the difficult decision because donations have remained flat while the number of families needing assistance is at an all-time record — 12,650, a 30 percent increase from 2010, the Des Moines Register reported.

Cobb was talking with other Valley Junction merchants late Wednesday morning and asked: “Gee, what are we going to do about this?”

“There was kind of a sad, deafening silence,” Cobb said. “I thought, OK, I hear the message.”

Cobb says she’s never more dangerous than when she has a telephone phone in her hand.

A half-dozen calls later and she had secured a truck for three days from the Two Men and A Truck moving company, received the blessing of the Historic Valley Junction Foundation and the , found a partnering business, and gotten a heartfelt thanks from DMARC officials.

Cobb said Valley Junction is a good location for the food drive because many people pass near it on their way to and from work. Attached to this article is a list of most-needed food items.

“I’m feeling a tiny little bit ashamed that we didn’t think of this yesterday,” Cobb said. “Everybody has responded so positively and asked what they can do.”

Social media makes it easier to spread the word, she said.

“It’s not like we have to carve the message out of stone,” she said. “We can let the whole world know we're holding an emergency food drive for the pantry.”

Among the items needed are:

• Plastic bottles or cans of 100 percent juice
• Canned fruit in 100 percent juice (not heavy syrup)
• Beans (dry or canned in water)
• Peanut butter
• Canned meat (tuna or chicken, packed in water)
• Whole-grain dry pasta and egg noodles
• Brown rice (regular or instant)
• Vegetable soup (low sodium)
• Whole grain crackers (wheat saltines)
• Spaghetti sauce
• Cereal (instant or regular oatmeal with no sugar added, whole grain Cheerios, Wheat Chex, Wheaties, granola or Shredded Wheat)
• Shelf-stable low-fat UHT milk (in aseptic packaging, no canned milk)
• Infant/baby formula
• Diapers and baby wipes
• Personal products (shampoo, soap, feminine hygiene, toothpaste, or deodorant)

(Editor's Note: Please Tweet and reTweet the urgent food pantry needs and Valley Junction’s efforts to address them. Be sure to use and follow the hashtag #WDMFeedTheHungry.)