Shelving and shopping carts deliver food in dora, alabama

In 25 years of working with seniors and families, Lori Abercrombie, director of Mission of Hope in Dora, Alabama, has never seen a larger array of issues facing older adults than now. As one

example, she points to how, since 2020, there’s been a 75 percent increase in the number of older residents requesting food assistance. Among the reasons: Dora (population 2,255) is located

in Walker County, which, according to an annual report by the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, has the state’s highest rate of drug overdoses from fentanyl as well as legal

opioids used for medical purposes. The county has the nation’s third highest rate of nonfatal opioid overdoses.  The crisis began in the early 2000s, when millions of legal prescription

opioid pills flooded the county. At times, according to reporting by the _Washington Post_, so many pills were in circulation that the math calculated to 131 pills a year for every resident

of Walker County. As a result of the addiction epidemic, many of Dora’s older residents are raising their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mission of Hope’s primary initiative is a

drive-through food distribution program, provided twice monthly to more than 1,000 households, some 80 percent of which include an older adult. A smaller program delivers food to homebound

senior citizens. The organization received a 2023 AARP Community Challenge grant to help fund the programs.  At the drive-through location, volunteers wheel food from the warehouse to the

waiting cars using grocery carts. Funds were used to purchase new carts.   * For the food delivery program, funds were used to purchase commercial shelving for storing and organizing

groceries and meals. AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE THE RESULTS — AND REACTIONS  “Shopping carts may not sound like a big deal, but, honey, those things have been a godsend for us,” says

Abercrombie, noting that at least 50 percent of the mission’s volunteers are 65 or older, with many in their 80s and many receiving food assistance themselves. “Helping their neighbors is a

way to pay it forward.”  The carts make it easy to load up the food and get it to the people in their cars, Abercrombie explains. “When you're running 200 cars through in a short amount

of time, you need good equipment to get that food there. If I don't have good equipment, the seniors are not going to volunteer. They physically cannot.”  One 78-year-old volunteer

gushed about the new carts: "We went from Pintos to Cadillacs. The carts practically drive themselves. We can run to the cars with these!” ADVICE FOR REPLICATING THE PROJECT IT TAKES A

VILLAGE: “People think, ‘Oh, I can only do this,' or 'I can only do that,’” says Abercrombie. “But somebody can collect canned soups, or come help bag food, or take food to a home.

Everybody doing their little part makes a program like this work.”  More examples of the new shelving and shopping carts Courtesy Mission of Hope RELATED LINKS READ ABOUT ANOTHER PROJECT

_Page published March 2025  | Reporting by Amy Lennard Goehn_er