Challenges other to ‘chip in’

On Wednesday, an Ironton civic group donated to the Harvest for the Hungry food pantry and brought a challenge to the community to help support those in need.

Dr. Pacifico Dorado, M.D., Phil McMahon, DDS, Maggie McMahon and Ludy Dorado, M.D., all members of OVIC, presented a $2,000 check to Diane Porter, director of the Harvest for the Hungry, in the dock area of the food pantry, located at 120 N. Fifth St., in downtown Ironton.

“We just thought that we need to help the community and we want to encourage a lot of people in the community to rise up and to chip in,” said Pacifico Dorado. “We want to challenge all the organizations in town because there is a lot of need, particularly for food. There are a lot of people who are destitute in this town. Every time I drive by here, the line is getting longer and the poverty is rising. So, I challenge every group in town to rise up and be counted in this time of need.”

The group was formed in 1987 for the purpose of promoting the social interaction of professionals in the Ironton/Ashland/Huntington area. Over the years, the group has supported organizations like Ohio University Southern and people who needed help going to college.

Phil McMahon said the donation was made to Harvest for the Hungry because they wanted the money to help those in the Ironton community.

“The need is so great and we thought this donation was the philanthropic thing to do,” he said.

Porter said she was “so thrilled” by the donation.

“We have had so much outpouring of generosity this year,” she said. She added that her first job out of college was in disaster services and saw that “disasters bring out the best in people, for the most part. And it seems like COVID has brought the best out in a lot of people. So, in a bad situation, we have good. And I really, really appreciate it.”

Pacifico Dorado said that he was moved by not only Porter’s work with Harvest for the Hungry, but with her backstory of leaving Seattle to move back to Ironton to care for her mother after she had knee surgery.

“I realized she couldn’t stay by herself. So, I packed up most of my stuff and moved back and here I am, 11 years later,” Porter said.

“After she moved back here, she stayed because the community needs so much help,” Pacifico Dorado said. “She said it was so heart-warming to give back to the community.”
Porter said the best donation anyone can make to the pantry right now is money.

“With COVID, we are being ultra-careful about bringing anything into the pantry when we don’t know where all it has been,” she said. “So, the best way is a check to Harvest for the Hungry, PO Box 153, Ironton, Ohio, 45638.”

Porter said 100 percent of the money goes into the budget to run the pantry.

“I am a volunteer, I tithe my time. We only have one paid employee,” she said.