It’s a common sight in grocery stores: costumers combing through the piles of fruit to find those without blemishes or seeking out the food that has the most remote use-by date.

Most of the customers who do it think nothing of it. But while those blemished fruits or that close-to-expiring bread loaf isn’t for them, it is for someone else. Those overlooked pieces of produce might end up on the shelves of The Central Pantry, 1007 Big Bear Blvd., and might end up feeding a family in need in Columbia.

The Central Pantry receives donations from supermarkets, restaurants and even Quik Trips every day. The pantry has collected more than 700,000 pounds of food since June 1 alone. And that’s just locally. The Central Pantry is a pantry for The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, which often buys food to stock shelves as well.

Pantry staff member Kevin Butterfield said the donations they receive locally vary in quality.

“We get what we can get,” he said. And the pantry staff tells customers “it is what it is.”

Some fruit comes in as ripe as it is going to be — some even has to be thrown out once it gets to the pantry. But sometimes stores donate food that is still ahead of it’s ripening or expiration date. It just depends on the store’s managers and budget.

Butterfield is grateful for all the donations because that food would otherwise be thrown out. With the pantry, it gets a second chance.

Donations don’t just come from big stores. They can come from people, too. Earlier this fall, a farmer donated 24 pallets of zucchini. A man dropped off a bushel of apples at the front counter.

Any donation helps because The Central Pantry serves 170 people or families every day, six days a week.

Sean Ross, pantry supervisor, said most clients come once a month to get a range of items. Half of the customers use the Supplement Nutrient Assistance Program, or SNAP, to buy their groceries. Or some might have just happened across a period of bad luck.

In 2010, about 50 percent of food pantry users lived in a household with no working adults. The other half included working adults, but some were not always fully employed, according to a study published by the University of Missouri’s Institute of Public Policy.

“When one” adult in the household “is laid off or” gets their “hours reduced, we’re the first link to that safety net,” Ross said.

The Central Pantry relies on 20 volunteers a day and a few staff members to help stock the shelves and keep the operation moving smoothly.

Volunteers work in various departments, from the meat counter to produce and behind the scenes in the warehouse.