A local food bank outreach aimed at Cullman’s Hispanic residents is seeing a surge of interest through the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, as more people without paychecks begin searching for ways to weather the pandemic at home.

This month, the Hispanic ministry at First United Methodist Church greeted nearly three times the traffic it typically sees at its monthly drive-thru food bank, handing out food to more than 40 cars (and, when the food ran out, turning the last two cars away).

“We usually don’t get more than 15 families at the most,” said First United Hispanic Associate Pastor Raul Dominguez. “But because of what is going on, we prepared more and ended up having 45 families come through. We had prepared for 33, and were not able to give food to the last two that came through.”

Dominguez said the drive-thru food bank is open to everyone in the community, but it aims to help local people of Hispanic background by curating its food staple selection to meet a more specific set of dietary requirements.

“There is a limit to what we can get from the local food bank, because there are a lot of things the Hispanic community uses that the food bank will not always have,” he explained. “We try to get [dried] beans, milk, rice, flour, corn flour — just the things that will help nourish them when cooked from scratch.”

Staffed by Spanish speakers, the food bank operates from the covered drive-up entry at First United Methodist Church, and it typically opens from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. (or the food runs out) on the first Wednesday of each month. Dominguez said organizers are currently considering making the drive-thru a biweekly outreach during the coronavirus pandemic.

For information on how you can contribute to the food bank, contact Cullman First United Methodist Church at 256-734-6690.