MUNCH reopens amid govt. shutdown

     As millions of Americans brace for the impact of missing federal food benefits this week, a beloved local institution has reopened its doors. MUNCH (Missourians United to Combat Hunger) is a food pantry and thrift store in Willow Springs that has been putting food on local families’ tables for nearly forty years. 

 

     Damage from spring rains was causing the facility to flood repeatedly this year, so Director Rose Marcum, who has volunteered at MUNCH for more than 30 years, marshaled resources and organized a repair. The north wall of the building is underground, and foundation repair services had to dig eight feet down to repair the damage and seal the foundation, Marcum said in an October 23 interview. The new seal required a protective interior wall to be built all along the northern edge of the building. Marcum brought in Luerrssen Construction, of Cabool, for this work. 

 

    “It was a major undertaking,” Marcum said. “Something had to be done to keep the building up. It cost a lot, but it had to be done.”

 

     All told, MUNCH was closed for a month, re-opening on October 20.

 

     In the final days of the closure, Marcum, Luerrssen’s, and volunteers, “worked nonstop to get it done,” she said. 

 

     Avery Parker and Karsten Kargel laid the new floors themselves. Students from Willow Springs High School disassembled the kitchen and reassembled it to make way for the new wall. Volunteers walked in from the street offering to mop and clean, one asking for only a pair of shoes in return. 

 

     “Gosh, we needed that,” Marcum said about the volunteer cleaning crew. 

 

     The regular volunteers have worked hard to reopen, too, Marcum pointed out. 

 

     “They show up faithfully and they just work and work. They know what they’re supposed to do,” she said. 

 

     Since MUNCH has reopened, there have been big crowds in the thrift store every day. The food pantry has operated through federal government shutdowns before, but Marcum expects this one to be harder to weather than the others. 

 

     “Everything is so expensive,” she said. 

 

     November is the month that MUNCH orders and prepares for their Christmas dinner giveaway, and on November 1, federal SNAP benefits will not be dispersed, affecting millions of Missourians.

     On December 13, Marcum anticipates distributing about 500 Christmas dinner kits to local families in need. 

 

     If you can help MUNCH feed local families, Marcum says monetary donations are always better than food donations. The organization can order from wholesale pantries and other suppliers and ultimately feed more people with cash donations.

 

     Volunteers in the thrift store and food pantry are also needed. Call 417-469-3221 to volunteer.