MEETINGS WITH A MISSION
CELEBRATING 17 YEARS OF FILLING THE PLATES OF OUR NEIGHBORS IN NEED Prodisee Pantry (prodiseepantry.org) is a non-profit community ministry providing emergency food and disaster relief. Families who are having trouble making ends meet are given food assistance and information about other programs that may help to make their lives more stable. The Pantry provides food to single parents, homeless persons, retirees, families in transition, underemployed and unemployed households, grandparents raising grandchildren and others in need.
Prodisee Pantry had 29,224 Baldwin County family visits (116% increase over 2019), where 3,035,031 pounds of groceries were distributed (235% increase over 2019).
The pandemic continues to create new challenges for nonprofits around the area. Baldwin County’s Prodisee Pantry is marking a little over one year of emergency food assistance during COVID. A drive-through line for food assistance, once a new innovation for nonprofits, is now a seemingly permanent fixture for the Prodisee Pantry. “Our volunteers provided three million pounds of food, three times the amount of food we normally give out, and we also had several hurricanes. 2020 was a double whammy,” said Prodisee Pantry Executive Director Deann Servos. The Southern is honored to have Deann Servos join us for dinner at this year’s Annual Meeting and share with us their vision to provide love, hope, comfort and encouragement to individuals and families in crisis, allowing them to navigate through their crisis and rise above it with dignity and grace. THE SOUTHERN 98TH ANNUAL MEETING • 2021 | 23
