October 30, 2023 newsletter

 

Good morning everyone. What a shift in the weather from Saturday to this morning! My dear husband made a first pass at the leaves on Saturday while I was at the pantry, and this morning it looks like he did nothing. Fortunately, he is very philosophical about this, knowing that both yard work and house work are never-ending. Which is the same way we've learned to think about the pantry. Certainly this past Saturday seemed to be never-ending, as our line continued almost until closing, and then picked up again just at noon as we were ready to close. We were tired!! Thank you to all of you who make it possible for us to provide food for our neighbors: we passed out 120 bags of food, and had 6 first-time guests along with the guests we know well. Thank you also to Laurie S and our wonderful Cookie Brigade...those homemade cookies made everyone feel loved  💕

I'm excited to tell you about some visitors we had this past week. Thanks to our friend Heidi C, we were contacted by the Bake 'N Joy distribution center in Ayer. Justin M came over on Wednesday to see our program and to talk about how we might partner. He brought us a few cases of banana bread to distribute on Friday and Saturday, and I must say that everyone was thrilled to get a container of it in their bread bags. I had a sample on Wednesday...it's really good! So, our thanks go out to the folks at Bake 'N Joy for their generosity and for spreading the joy!

We also had a visit Friday evening from our favorite nurse, Maureen S, from the Nashoba Associated Boards of Health. She came to do wellness checks, talk with anyone who needed advice, check blood pressures, and offer flu shots. It's always a good day when Nurse Maureen visits, and we really appreciate her spending the time with us.

This is the time of year when we start to have to switch over to buying more of our produce each week, as the local crops begin to dry up. I had even talked with my friend Mike V at Shop 'n Save about how we would need to increase our order, which our lovely friend Nicole T picks up each Saturday morning. But out of the blue, generous local gardener Patrick H stopped by with a large box of butternut squash, and Jess R from Boston Area Gleaners called Alison + Rich E to come pick up 16 boxes of romaine lettuce and 24 CSA boxes! We gave out all of the CSA boxes on Saturday, but Alison + Rich were able to share that lettuce with 2 other pantries. We love it when that happens! Soon, very soon, we will have to start buying more produce each Saturday, but not last weekend   😊

Attached to the newsletter today is a picture of Lin M's son Vinny, helping to keep the Thanksgiving haul from falling out of the cart! Lin has collected the money specifically for this project, and Vinny assembled all the bags that we will pass out over the next 3 weekends. Besides the bag of pantry staples, there will also be gift cards to get a turkey and fresh produce, provided by the Police Union, which we appreciate so much.

If you are planning to donate food this weekend, please don't give us leftover Halloween candy! We give out homemade cookies and other pastries each week, we have bags with baking supplies available from time to time, and we hand out snack bags each week to the Friday dinner crew. Otherwise, we are trying to keep our offerings more healthy. Many of our guests have problems with sugar, so please don't give us your candy. If you can shop for us this week, we are getting low on little girls' socks (not toddlers...we need grade school sizes), and we could also use more low-sodium canned beans (not green beans), low-sodium canned corn, low-sodium soups (no fish or shellfish please), and canned fruit, preferably packed in juice, not syrup. Oh, and toilet paper! Thank you to all of you who reach out and help with these needs each week...you are our heroes  💕    We'll be at the pantry on Wednesday from 10 to noon, Friday from 4 to 5:30, and Saturday from 9 to noon for drop-offs. And the bin is always available at Shop n' Save if those times don't suit. Please leave a note in the bag with your name so we know whom to thank!

I hope you have a great week, and I love you all!