Cathy Ashby says the House of Lazarus’ South Mountain food bank suffered major losses after a fire.
“Pretty much the only thing we were able to save was the meat that was in our walk-in freezer,” explains Ashby, the organization’s Executive Director. “We’re really grateful to the firefighters that were on scene. After the fire was out, they were able to go in and form, like, a chain, and just kept bringing out crates of meat for us.”
The meat is being stored at Foodland in Winchester at the moment, and Ashby says she doesn’t think anything else inside the building is salvageable.
“The good news is, the community has already started to rally around us,” she says. “Several places have said that they’d accept food donations.”
Ashby says the food bank will be re-opening Thursday at the South Mountain Agricultural Hall.
“We are looking for food donations, and donations for our Operation Backpack program, and for the Food Bank itself,” she says.
Monetary donations are also being accepted, to help fund repairs of the building and to pay for more food.
Ashby says the best place to look for where and how to donate are the organization’s website and Facebook page.