Clients feeling Second Harvest, Clover Area Assistance Center split

Pat Cartee sat second in line, one of 14 vehicles to beat the delivery truck to the church. Cartee filled out paperwork and waited for enough food to feed a 90-year-old, shut-in neighbor and herself. She saw the church that helped so much after her husband died several years ago.

“If it hadn’t been for the people over here,” Cartee said, “I don’t know what I’d do.”

By 9 a.m. already 70 degrees on Wednesday, a driver pulled up to New Beginnings Baptist Church with more than 10,000 pounds of sodas and spaghetti, loaf bread and breakfast bars, cereal and croissants. There were cases of yogurt and cheese, juice and crackers. All food was free through Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina to residents in need.

“That’s how I make ends meet,” Cartee said.

It’s also how food providers are making ends meet.

A new model

In March, Clover Area Assistance Center and Second Harvest went separate ways. The Clover center had purchased food from Second Harvest in Charlotte for more than a decade, and distributed a federal allotment of free food within Clover School District boundaries. When CAAC voted to end the partnership following a dispute, Second Harvest looked to churches to pass out the free food.

The delivery Wednesday was one of seven scheduled in Clover from May to December.

Rose Rollison lives across the street from New Beginnings, so she had no qualms about convenience. She also uses CAAC, which provides financial assistance and other services in addition to food. Rollison said she can tell a difference at CAAC since the split.

“They don’t have as much as they used to,” she said. “They have the bare minimum.”

A family member told her about the distribution event being held across the street on Old North Main Street. Rollison said she and others will adjust to the new way of getting food.

“I wish it was going the old way,” she said. “They had a lot more to offer.”

David Dulin has a Clover address but a York phone number. He, like others, will travel to wherever in York County the truck stops. Deliveries come about three times monthly, but the drive can vary.

“I go sometimes different places,” Dulin said. “I’ve been to one in Rock Hill.”

Dulin said groups such as CAAC, or PATH in York, are good because, in addition to waiting inside, they are open more often. For people with limited access to transportation, he said, it can make a difference. He set his Wednesday morning around the truck arriving.

“You just make it when it comes,” Dulin said.

Making the best

For some, there are benefits to the arrangement. Cartee lived in Clover while she raised her grandchildren, but now lives in York. While CAAC could give federal food to anyone in need, most of its services were limited to Clover School District residents. Of the 37 people who came through the first hour Wednesday, only 15 had Clover addresses.

Others came largely from York and Rock Hill, but also from McConnells, Catawba, Fort Mill, Lancaster, Bowling Green and Gaston County, N.C.

“I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t need the food,” Cartee said.

Then there are Clover and Lake Wylie residents who would not have access to food at the Second Harvest truck or CAAC. Leftover food from Second Harvest deliveries goes to the partnering church to divvy among soup kitchens, shelters or similar facilities. New Beginnings has a shelter, thrift store, food bank and God’s Kitchen, which delivers to disabled and shut-in residents.

“A hot meal, every day of the week, Monday through Friday,” said Lisa Fratantuono, secretary at God’s Kitchen.

Boxes and crates of food sat leftover Wednesday, as volunteers packaged it for delivery. God’s Kitchen delivers 75 plates per day, and the leftover food would not go to waste.

“We can use any help we can get,” Fratantuono said.

Greetings of “God bless you” and “thank you” rang out Wednesday toward volunteers, many of them from the church shelter. Recipients were thankful for the food, for the help, however they got it. Many said they preferred the old way, but they are happy to get what they can.

“I just adjust,” Rollison said.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Clients feeling Second Harvest, Clover Area Assistance Center split."