Skip Schulz/For the Gazette Ontonagon Area School District Superintendent Jim Bobula (left) addresses the OASD School Board about this Thrusday's "Feeding America" Mobile Food Pantry stop at the Ontonagon School parking lot. Also pictured, Karen Jackson and Nancy Mattson.

ONTONAGON — The Ontonagon Area School District (OASD) and Finlandia University are partnering with “Feeding America.” The two schools will host a mobile food pantry this Thursday, which will take place in the Ontonagon School parking lot, from 4 to 7 p.m.

According to the “Feeding America” website, the concept of food banking was developed by John van Hengel in Phoenix, Arizona, in the late 1960s. Van Hengel, a retired businessman, had been volunteering at a soup kitchen trying to find food to serve the hungry. One day, he met a desperate mother who regularly rummaged through grocery store garbage bins to find food for her children. She suggested that there should be a place where, instead of being thrown out, discarded food could be stored for people to pick up.

The concept would be “similar to the way banks store money for future use,” according to the website.

It was during Monday’s OASD School Board meeting that Superintendent Jim Bobula informed board members about this Thursday’s mobile food pantry. “There are not any requirements that determine who can receive commodities from the food pantry,” he said.

While there are not any requirements as to who can receive the food, “Feeding America” states that the western Upper Peninsula has three counties with a number of individuals in need of assistance with food. Those counties are Houghton, Baraga, and Gogebic. Townships in Ontonagon County also qualify.

“People are asked to bring bags and/or boxes to put the food in,” said Bobula.

The truck bringing the food can feed up to 300 families.