PAXTON, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) –
For some people living in and around North Walton County, getting fresh, healthy food is not always a simple task, and the COVID-19 pandemic has not made it any easier.
“I’m 65, and my son that I live with, he’s got M.S., and he’s confined to a wheelchair, and this helps us out with our groceries,” said Patricia Lawrence, a Florala resident.
“I’ve seen it in the places that people work, people can’t work at Hardees and some of these fast food stores because they can’t put in the hours because they close at a certain time now,” said Elizabeth Perkins, who lives in Paxton.
The Matrix Community Outreach Center has given out more than one million pounds of food to people throughout Walton County since March.
But it’s the volunteers who are responsible for getting the food up north.
“It’s that much that we don’t have to buy, that we can use on other things like medicine,” said Lawrence.
Volunteer Kathy Partridge said there’s no shortage of need here.
“We have lots of low income and elderly people, it’s hard for them to get out and go. We’ve only got one Dollar Store here in Paxton and we have one grocery store across the line over in Alabama in Florala,” said Partridge.
Partridge said when she heard Matrix Community Outreach was handing out boxes of food, she knew she had to get them up to North Walton.
“It’s a good blessing, we started and I advertised it at church and we got volunteers from the church to come. We’re just one big family up here helping each other,” said Partridge.
The boxes are paid for through a federal grant.
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