About a year and a half ago, the St. James Caring Center learned that the monthly deliveries it receives from the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri would decrease by 40 percent.

The food bank is the Caring Center’s primary food supplier, and in the months since, providing full grocery carts to families on Commodity Day has become harder. The Caring Center serves 225 families on Commodity Day every month, which Executive Director Nancy Montgomery estimates to equal a total of around 1,000 people. This is roughly a quarter of St. James’ population.

The center’s services are in higher demand as of recently, Montgomery said, making the 40 percent decrease in food deliveries especially challenging.

“If the economy’s really good and everybody’s got a job, our numbers are down a little bit,” Montgomery said. “They’re not right now, they’re higher than normal. So again, that’s where that 40 percent impacts us. If (we) have higher numbers, they get less food because we don’t have as much to distribute.”

The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri partners with local organizations to distribute food across 32 counties in Missouri, and Montgomery said broader economic pressures caused their distributions to be reduced across the board.

According to annual reports from the food bank, pounds of food delivered to the Caring Center have been decreasing every year since 2019, aside from a spike in 2023. The food bank was able to distribute 507,735 pounds of food to the Caring Center in 2019, compared to 340,792 pounds last year.

“We don’t have the funds to backfill this 40 percent,” Montgomery said.

Despite the strain, the Caring Center is committed to serving the community with the resources it has. Commodity Day draws crowds to the center from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. every third Thursday of the month, where those in need can pick up a shopping cart stocked with donated food items.

To fill the gap in food inventory, the Caring Center is relying now more than ever on local food drives put on by schools, churches and community groups. Montgomery encourages people to set up food drives on smaller scales within their families and neighborhoods.

“Be the house on your street that says, okay, we’re all going to support the Caring Center,” she said. “If you come to church on Sunday, bring one can of green beans, put it in the box. If you have 100 people that attend your church, that’s 100 cans of green beans. That’s a lot to us.”

Monetary donations are also helpful for the center because it allows them to customize their purchases to items that are running the lowest. All money on food items is spent in St. James in order to support the local economy.

“The businesses and churches and everyone invests in us, so we reinvest in them by purchasing our items,” Montgomery said.

The center also offers home deliveries for people who are sick or without transportation and an emergency food pantry for anyone who has run out of their items in between Commodity Days. Those in need can also receive utility, rent and prescription assistance as well as gas vouchers.

The Caring Center operates on a small paid staff plus a group of about 140 volunteers. Many of these volunteers are seniors or local students who can do more of the heavy lifting on Commodity Days. Montgomery said that despite recent challenges, it’s seeing the impact of their work that keeps the group going.

“We have so many people that come through and say, ‘this is my food for the month,’” she said. “There are people in the community that strictly depend on this Commodity Day.”

Anyone looking to sign up to receive items through Commodity Day can call the center at 573-265-2047 or go to stjcsc.org/benevolent-services. Those looking to donate are welcome to drop shelf-stable items off at the center’s location at 113 W. Eldon Street or give monetary contributions at stjcsc.org/donate-1.