Sinclair Cares: State troopers help deliver food to those who can't pick it up

BATAVIA, Ohio (WKRC) - The Salvation Army in Batavia has a food pantry that offers a no-touch pickup and there are some who stepped up to help those who can't pick it up.

From Milford to Moscow, Amelia to Goshen -- when the order to stay at home went into place, the phones began ringing at the Batavia Salvation Army.

"Either they are in that at-risk target population who cannot come out, they’re under stay at home orders by their doctor or they’re just afraid to come out," said Lt. Brittany Bender, Corps Officer with the Batavia Salvation Army.

Bender began traveling to every edge of Clermont County to deliver food after the Corps office closed for the day. On the fourth day, the phone rang with a different question from a surprising source.

"Most people picture us -- I think a lot of times sees us doing traffic enforcement, handling crashes, arresting impaired drivers and things of that nature, which is -- I mean, it is what we do a lot of, but it’s not the only thing we do," Lt. Bobby Hayslip, the Batavia post commander with OSHP, said.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol now delivers food at least three times a week.

"To my knowledge, we’ve not turned down one call. When she calls us, we did as many as 10 deliveries in a day, I believe" Hayslip said.

"I’m on SSI and we got three kids, so it’s literally helping to feed our children," Brittany Booth said.

Since the stay at home order went in place, the Salvation Army has seen demand triple.

"Those unexpected blessings you never can see coming, but just a sense of relief and gratitude that we are now able to reach so many more families in Clermont County that we wouldn’t have been able to reach by ourselves," said Bender.

"If it wasn’t for these people, I tell ya, we’d starve to death. I mean, literally we’d starve to death," Patricia Matthews said.

No request is too far.

"If you have stuff that reaches outside of Clermont County...we will take care of that as well," Hayslip said.

On a recent delivery, a neighbor asked the trooper for food. The trooper only has an exact number of deliveries in the car, so they didn't have extra but did refer them to the Salvation Army. That same trooper returned with food later that day.