SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – KOLR 10 & FOX 49 is raising money for Crosslines during the Putting the Ozarks First campaign.

Crosslines serves not only as a food pantry, but a diaper bank, rent/utility assistance, and clothing assistance.

“In the month of April, we served well over 2,000 families through our freestanding food pantry,” Director Wes Buchholz said. “It’s over 100,000 meals. That’s a slow month in April, which means that going into the summer, we’re going to pick up even more.”

Yearly, Crosslines serves over 50,000 people in Greene County.

“Our income eligibility guidelines are follow the USDA guidelines, which is 185% of federal poverty,” Buchholz said.

In February, the organization moved locations to create a one-stop shop for families in need. The new building sits just off East Division Street.

“For the guests that we’re serving, they’re getting to conserve resources by going to one place to get connected,” Buchholz said. “We expect to serve more households and people than we have in years past now that we’re all together.”

Crossline relies mainly on volunteers to give families the food they need.

“Every single day we have a basically at least a 1 to 1 ratio of staff to volunteers, and that includes all of our staff that are working in all the other programs under Council of Churches,” Buchholz said. “We have well over 35000 hours of volunteer time that gets put in just through our food pantry. So truly volunteer dependent and community dependent for support.”

One volunteer said the new building helps create comfort for neighbors.

“Now that we have a new building with a lovely waiting room, people can feel welcomed in a nice open space and be able to receive whatever services they came for in a much bigger open space,” Deb Stratman said. “They don’t have to stand out in the cold or the rain or the beating down sun and they can get shop for themselves individually in the pantry.”

Stratman has volunteered with Crosslines for the last ten years. She said making creating a judge-free zone is crucial for anyone that walks through the front doors.

“No matter where we go, if there’s a friendly face helping us through the process, person to person, it just relaxes everyone,” Stratman said.

For one shopper, she said she appreciates the kindness of the volunteers at Crosslines.

“It’s very relieving,” Delicia Perez said. “It’s not always fun coming to a food pantry because you want to be in a position where you don’t have to go to food pantries. But it’s always good to know that you have one close by that you can go to.”

The organization mostly receives its food from the USDA but also relies on donations from the community. One of the food drives Crosslines relies on is the Postal Carriers Food Drive.

“The National Association of Letter Carriers run the oldest, longest running food drive in in the country,” Buchholz said. “It provides a literally tons of food that helps supplement what we offer through our food pantry, through our mobile food distribution program.”

Buccholz said the drive will take place the weekend of May 13.