Giving Back: First Ward Living Grace Food Pantry
Pine Bluff's Debra Strickland Allen radiates hope in dark times
No one will ever say Debra Strickland Allen is shy.
Last week at a Community Chat about Jefferson County, Allen, the executive director of First Ward Living Grace Food Pantry, stood up and told a young, pregnant 911 dispatcher not to worry about going hungry. She would see to it that everyone who needed food got food until the county paycheck drama ended.
Even after county employees received their checks — one day late — Allen fed all county workers at a luncheon on Friday at her food pantry, which was once a fire station that served Pine Bluff's East Side. More than 200 people attended.
Allen said when she heard the county checks were going to be late, she just had to do something.
But this kind of take-action attitude isn't anything new for Allen who has been running her food pantry for seven lyears and helping citizens of Southeast Arkansas in various ways for decades including running a daycare and a youth center.
Before Allen's pantry was in the firehouse, where she moved in late 2022, she ran the pantry for five years out of the former Southeast Middle School before it was demolished.
“I am the number one food pantry in Jefferson County because I don't just give to the people who get food stamps,” Allen said in an interview. “I give to the working people, too. The ones who work nine to five. When I started, that's what I built my application on. If I couldn't do that, I wasn't going to do it.”
The Arkansas Food Bank is a major donor, but so are many other businesses and people including Sissy's Log Cabin, Sherwin Williams, Tyson, Summit Community Care, LEAPS, Carpenter's Produce, Ivan and Loretta Whitfield, fraternities, sororities and more. But even with many sponsors, the need for more donations are always needed, especially in the current economy.
From the ground up
“I started with two deep freezers, a refrigerator and 10 ice chests at Southeast,” Allen, who grew up in Humphrey, said.
Thanks to Booker Franklin, who is connected to the Pine Bluff School District, Allen had a building with free utilities and rent at Southeast.
Allen said that a line to her pantry would run for miles down Ohio Street.
But the same is true for her current location on Commerce Street, which she said she had to fight the city to use but city leaders finally caved.
“It's just in my heart to give,” she said. “That's my heart. That's just what I do.”
But it's not just in times of crisis and disasters that Allen raises to the occasion.
Allen is hosting an event for moms in honor of Mother's Day this Thursday.
“It's moms and grandmothers because it's Mother's Day,” Allen said. “A lot of the moms no longer have their kids because of young adult and teens violence.”
Allen has special gifts for women to pamper themselves for self-care purposes and other surprises for them, too.
“I just do my events different, “ she said.
One time Mickey and Minnie Mouse showed up to entertain kids. Another time a local grocery store grilled burgers for people waiting in line for groceries. Another time people received steaks and baked potatoes.
In the summer Allen will host a back-to-school event.
Allen never judges a person's station in life. She just gives because it's her calling to help her county and hometown.
“It's just getting bigger and bigger, whites and blacks,” Allen said. “I love that's it growing, and people come here when they need help.”
With the local Salvation Army closing down its overnight shelter and cutting services, Allen sees her mission only getting bigger.
“I see us continue with giving groceries and house hold supplies,” she said. “I see a shelter for the homeless seven days a week. I have enough faith as a mustard seed to believe it will come to pass. It sickens me that the homeless are sleeping in abandoned houses and breezeways in the shopping center area. They are also in the old mall sleeping every night. That hurts my heart.”
To help Allen with her mission, call 479-301-1096.
This makes my heart happy.