Riedel Foundation’s $15,000 grant to help Salvation Army feed hungry in Hannibal

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The George H. Riedel Foundation recently awarded the Salvation Army of Hannibal a $15,000 grant to help feed people in need this fall and into the Christmas season. The Salvation Army will use $5,000 of the grant to restock the food pantry shelves.

In a press release, Jake Reed, donor relations coordinator with the Salvation Army of Hannibal, said, “This is a slow time for pantry donations, and the need is ever-increasing. We need to fill our pantry shelves with nutritional foods after the summer months. The shelves are bare, and there are no vegetables. The Riedel Foundation grant will help fill the need until our fall food drives begin.”

The balance of the grant, $10,000, will pay for roughly a third of the total cost of providing Christmas food boxes to people in need. The Salvation Army expects to provide about 850 food boxes this year. The boxes contain everything needed to prepare a Christmas dinner with all the fixings, plus breakfast food for Christmas morning.

“We don’t want anyone to go hungry Christmas day,” Riedel trustee Paul Richards said. “So many people face daily food insecurity, and this is just one day of the year they won’t have to worry about it. It’s the right thing to do.”

The Christmas food boxes go to residents in six northeast Missouri counties, but more than 90 percent serve Hannibal residents.