The Oxford Ambulance Association is starting an emergency food bank for residents of Oxford.

The purpose of the food bank is to provide between one day’s worth and one week’s worth of food to people in need.

The association and the Oxford Ambulance Explorer Post, which is also involved in the food drive, collected food a few weeks ago during “Stuff an Ambulance” at Oxford Paint and Hardware. On top of food, the association will give a small gift card to a grocery store for dairy and meat, said Oxford Ambulance Association Assistant Director Madalene Taggart.

“During the power outage in November, I had two families approach me with a need for food,” she said. “We tried to get them food through the Spooner House Food Bank, and we were unsuccessful.”

She said the Valley Food Bank has an application process and only operates Monday through Friday.  The Salvation Army was able to help out one of the families, but that organization also has an application process, Taggart said.

“This reinforced to me that there should be some sort of emergency food bank in place in town,” she said. At the local food bank, all requests will be kept confidential and there will be no applications to fill out, Taggart said.

“This food bank is set up to provide a stop gap situation for people until they can utilize the Valley Food Bank,” she said.

If anyone is in need they can reach Taggart by calling her cell phone at 203-509-5050 or by calling her office phone 203-881-5216 ext.100.