It’s been a fall full of obstacles, but thanks to the greater Ogden community’s help, Catholic Community Services’ Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank was able to maintain services to a growing number of people in spite of these challenges.

Randy Chappell, director of basic needs with Catholic Community Services, told the Standard-Examiner last week that the rough waters did not knock the food pantry off course.

“I think we fared pretty well,” he said. “There was a lot of community support, either with food donations or monetary donations. We were able to keep the pantry stocked and survived the extended shutdown.”

He said there was a substantial increase in people utilizing the food pantry and that the numbers are still high but starting to tail off with the shutdown ended.

“Normally, we see anywhere between 60-75 households when the pantry is open,” he said. “During the shutdown, we were pushing 125-150 households. … Tuesday (Nov. 18) we had 100 households. It hasn’t seemed as busy as it was during the shutdown. Obviously, we’re still up from what we normally are, but I think that’s just the tail end winding down.”

With the government shutdown, the next milestone appeared on the horizon — Thanksgiving.

Chappell said that the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank saw around 1,400 households apply for a Thanksgiving “box.” This comes with turkey, pumpkin pie filling, pie crust, potatoes, onions, stuffing, green beans, corn and bread rolls. These were distributed this past weekend.

“We’ve been able to get all of the food needed to supply Thanksgiving meals to those 1,400 households,” he said. “Normally, we only do 1,200, but with the shutdown and not being sure how long it was going to go, we did increase our number by 200.”

When asked about their biggest needs at the moment, Chappell said they are looking ahead to the Christmas dinner boxes they will be distributing next month.

“Right now, we’re really in need of getting some hams that we can give out for Christmas instead of a turkey,” he said. “That’s our biggest need now — hams. … We’re going to do 1,400 for Christmas as well.”

He said they continue to also look for high-protein canned items such as peanut butter, corn, green beans and other canned vegetables.

Chappell said there are many unsung heroes that have helped the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank weather this storm and those that have preceded it.

“Our pantry is surviving,” he said. “We’ve made it through some challenging moments in years past with COVID and how that affected our pantry and the government shutdown. It does take a lot of individuals to run our pantry and get it stocked up. We’ve had a lot of great volunteer support, but also my staff really stepped up in making sure everyone in need is being taken care of. My staff truly care about those who come in the pantry, and we’re grateful for the volunteers that have stepped up when our pantry has been busier and we’ve stayed open longer just to make sure everyone gets through.”

He said that he sees the pantry continuing to be able to fulfill its duties well into the future.

“We’re in a good position to continue to serve those in need for many years ahead,” he said. “I just want to say thank you to the community, the community really stepped up and helped out in a time of need. That just shows how close the Ogden community is and how everyone is so willing to help those that are in need.”