Jean Ripley, who manages the mobile food pantry for St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Webster City, makes it her business to know the people who must depend on the generosity of others.

“It’s stressful for our clients during the holidays,” she said. “Parents want to provide Christmas gifts for their children, and that can mean neglecting themselves. By providing these toiletry bags, in addition to our regular food items, we send them a message: These help you take care of yourself. YOU are important too.”

The toiletry bags hold things people need every day. But a bar of soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, and hand cream or lip gloss, can cost $5 to $6, more than the limited budget many people have. In fact, due to inflation, supply channel disruption and tariffs, the cost of personal care products has risen 18% since 2020, nearly as much as the cost of food.

Ripley added, “If it comes down to food for the family, or soap, they have to choose food. That’s why these toiletry bags are so important.”

Most of the food distributed by the food pantries in Hamilton County comes from the Food Bank of Iowa in Des Moines, but what about the toiletries?

At a recent pantry, toothbrushes and toothpaste were donated by Maharry Family Dentistry, Webster City. Donations of money or toiletry items were collected by the church’s Social Concerns Committee, and students at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School decorated the gift bags and helped set up for the pantry.

A key contribution that helped pay for the food pantry toiletries came from the Teresa Treat Stearns Trust, which made a generous cash gift to the St. Thomas mobile pantry last July.

Teresa Treat lived in Webster City in the 1890s and helped convince Kendall Young of the need of a library in the city. When she died at age 94 in 1967, she left $260,000 to establish a charitable trust. The Daily Freeman-Journal of March 29, 1967, described the mission of the trust as . . . “to use the net income of the property for the good of the community of Webster City and vicinity in whatever cause seems to be, in its opinion, the most needed for the welfare of the greatest number . . .”

The trust continues its work today, and not only in its assistance to food pantries. Stearns Trust Scholarships are available to Webster City High School graduates pursuing higher education at any accredited college, university, vocational school or nursing program, and

also supports organizations with charitable, religious or educational missions across Iowa.