How Helping Hand is feeding Dunklin County's seniors and families in crisis

KENNETT, Mo. - Helping Hand, an income-based food pantry and thrift store here on Frisco Street is busier than normal for a Tuesday.

Director Timothy Cox and a number of male volunteers are outside the bustling facility, standing in the chill of January weather under a cloudless, blue sky near a dirt and chat driveway and an ever-present parade of vehicles.

Older people driving cars and pickup trucks wait patiently for boxes of food while Cox attends to a clipboard of documents and volunteers fill the orders he approves.

They load cardboard boxes of food into the vehicles that follow one another singly in procession, thank the drivers, wish them a pleasant afternoon and continue working through their days.

"This is our monthly Senior Food Box program," Cox says. "We do this through the SEMO Food Bank from Sikeston.

"That's supported through the USDA," the director adds. He reviews another document on his clipboard, then checks off on another box of food as its loaded into a silver pickup truck.

"Some of the food is food that we've purchased," he says. "And some is food that is sent from USDA through our TEFAP (the federal government's Emergency Food Assistance Program) endeavor.

"But today and for the next couple of days, we do Senior Box distribution as our primary objective in the mornings," he continues. "Three days every month. Then we serve people with Helping Hand food boxes in the afternoons."

The food pantry is well-known in the area, and for good reason. The Delta Dunklin Democrat earlier this year recognizes the non-profit as its Difference Maker Charity of the Year, and SEMO Food Bank names Helping Hand its 2024 Agency of the Year.

"We almost always do the Senior Boxes in mid-month," Cox explains. "We carve out several days during the week to get that done.

"To qualify for Senior Food Boxes, seniors must be 60 or older and must be Dunklin County residents," Cox explains. "We have 330 seniors served by the program, and another 95 people are on the waiting list. There is an income guideline, but the short answer is to come in and fill out an application, then we'll notify you of the qualifications, the parameters of the program."

Cox enjoys enhancing lives with good food, especially for people who for whatever reasons fall through economic cracks and need occasional hands up, nutritionally.

He isn't always involved, historically or professionally, with non-profits. Cox just about a year ago leaves his transportation logs in a big rig and finds employment at the pantry by accident, he says.

Some say, and he agrees, it's a blessing.

A very large, very satisfying blessing.

"I've been here since last February," he says. "My wife contracted Multiple Sclerosis, so I had to embark on a career change.

"I ended my transportation career, came in off the road as a truck driver and just happened to fall into this," the director adds. "It's my first time to work for a non-profit. And it's amazing."

Cox says the plethora of resources and staggering numbers of organizations "that work together in this community to make the program successful" is just incredible.

"You really don't understand it until you're in the middle of it," Cox says of his atypical workday. His phones ring and people come and go around him while they all labor toward the daily goal, filling orders and hungry bellies.

"From the top of the county all the way down to the most southern edge," Cox says of those he serves. "We see many of the same faces every month.

"But we're seeing many new faces now that we have the TEFAP program going," he continues. "It's a little different than our senior program. TEFAP helps out families in crisis in terms of food. There is an income guideline that's actually pretty high for this area. So, almost everybody that comes in qualifies for help. It's based on family sizes and it's a box we give out once a month."

Helping Hand has more than 800 names stored in its files and that number grows every month, Cox says.

"We want it to grow," he admits. "We want to try and meet as many people and families as we can."

An uptick in the number of those who become vulnerable nutritionally increases the need for volunteers and services, Cox says.

And Helping Hand is there to provide services, he emphasizes.

"The need has been met," he says, smiling. "We've been blessed.

"The items change," he adds. "But the primary need and what we needed to accomplish has been met. That's from great community support and the SEMO Food Bank."

Helping Hand is available at 511 Frisco St., Kennett, and is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Call 573.888.9048 for more information