BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Bacon, butter, milk and potato chips are items typically found at the grocery store, but the Carver branch of the East Baton Rouge library system has all of those food items and more. The branch operates a small community pantry to feed neighborhood children.
“Every single day and all day long, we could have 50 to 60 kids come through,” said branch manager Roblyn Honeysucker. “When they get here after school, they are starving. A lot of them may have parents that work the night shifts and there’s nobody home to cook dinner.”
According to Feeding Louisiana, more 230,000 children in the state live with food insecurity. Honeysucker wanted to do her part to make a difference.
“I had a grandmother to stop by and she was crying. She said this is pretty much the only place she gets food. She says she has 10 grandchildren,” said Honeysucker.
Senior Pastor Brady Whitton of First United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge learned about children being hungry. Whitton connected with one of his parishioners who works at Rouses Markets, and they donated food, food shelves and a refrigerator. Rouses delivers food to the library regularly. The pantry has been up and running for almost a year.
Whitton said, “It’s just fascination to me how when you have a group of people willing to serve in the community and willing to give back. When they find out about a need, it’s amazing how things begin to emerge.”
The food is for children ages zero to 18 and is available during regular library hours.
