Food pantry gifts coming from Dollar General suit

ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Some of Belmont County's food pantries will be getting an added Christmas present to help the public thanks to funds distributed from a settlement by the Dollar General to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office.

On Tuesday, two food pantries were selected at random. The Barnesville Food Pantry and Thrift Shop and the Flushing Alliance Church will each receive $500. Belmont County Auditor Cindi Henry conducted the drawings.

"When you go into a grocery store or a store and there's a tab on the shelf that says $2.99, that item might not have a sticker on it, but when you get to the register, it has to ring up as $2.99, that's the store's obligation. Dollar General is not doing that. You can get to the register and it's $2-$3.49, so as a result of that there were some class-action suits filed," Henry said.

There has since been a settlement of $750,000.

"And that settlement is being dispersed according to the attorney general, Dave Yost, to food pantries. We were allowed to choose two and there's seven in Belmont County," Henry said.

Every county in Ohio has a Dollar General, so an initial amount of $1,000 will go to each county. A total of $88,000. The rest of the funds will be distributed based on the number of stores

"After they dispersed that money, that $500 to each one of them, then they're going to go back and readjust and that should be the balance of them getting that money also."

She said the money should be delivered by Christmas.

"It's additional money for the holidays," Henry said.

Assistant manager Virginia Waggle at the Barnesville Food Pantry and Thrift Shop, reacted to the news.

"We'd be tickled to death to have it. We have a food pantry and we just had 90-some that had vouchers the other day, and we'll be giving another food order out Dec. 1, so anything we can get we'd appreciate," she said.

"We use it to go buy food. Folks donate to us as well, but we don't have any organizations anymore. It's all donated food and what we run low on we have to go and buy," Waggle said.

She said funds raised from the thrift store are used to buy food.

"No one gets paid here. We're all volunteers. We use that to buy food, help people with their utility bills and if they need clothing, we give them free clothing," she said. "We can use anything we get."

She said the need remains high, particularly during the holidays.

They are located at 116 South Gardner St. The phone number is 740-425-9438.

The Flushing Alliance Church did not return calls or an email asking for comment. The church is located at 427 E High St, Flushing and the phone number is 740-968-3911.