April 15, 2024 newsletter

 

Good morning! Happy Patriot's Day to those of you who have it off. Happy Patriot's Day to those of you who have to work. We had a great week, ending with open pantry and a Crafts Gathering during which Cyndi D redecorated all of the dinner tables! Pictures are attached.

We had another extremely busy morning at the pantry. In fact, we're pretty sure that we're going to have to increase our fresh produce purchases each week since the farms won't start supplying us for another few months. I told you last week that the number of visits in March were way up most weeks. Well, that trend has continued, and April has been BUSY! Here's the thing about produce: we don't have refrigeration available, so only some of it will keep from week to week. We pride ourselves on being as close to zero-waste as possible (a bit more on that in the next paragraph), so it's a balancing act to figure out how much of each perishable item to purchase each week!

Zero-waste: the goal is to avoid sending trash to the landfills in any way possible, by refusing, reducing, reusing, recycling, and rotting. We do really well on reusing plastic and paper grocery bags for our packing, as you know because I occasionally ask you for your bags! As far as food goes, we pretty much get an A+ (pat selves on the back). Any food that gets wasted was unfit to begin with. Shelf-stable items that are out of date are put out on tables for people to take if they wish. Leftover produce goes to other pantries that are open on Sunday or Monday (thank you Alison + Rich!). Bread and pastries get frozen.

But cans that are rusty and 5 years past expiration are tossed. Unfrozen baked goods that are out of date and starting to mold are tossed. Any items requiring refrigeration that we can't immediately give away have to be tossed. Open packages without individually wrapped portions are tossed. We hate to do it, but we also figure that it isn't really us who wasted it! We can't refuse it when people leave it on the church porch anonymously.

Where we don't get as good a grade is with packaging, especially cardboard. Banana boxes from the grocery store aren't a problem, as Alison and Rich take them to the Boston Area Gleaners' farm in Acton where they reuse them, over and over again! Laurie S reuses the small boxes that she packs the bags of cookies in too. We just save them and return them each time she visits. Some other larger boxes are saved and distributed to various friends who have need of them, but not all of them. And we are absolutely terrible when it comes to the lighter weight cardboard packaging and plastic wrapping. Into the dumpster it goes. Are any of you interested in this as a project? I can't keep asking the same people to do all the picking up and hauling, even though I know they will want to be involved. Wednesday mornings are the times we “produce” the majority of our recyclable trash. Email me if you have ideas!

If you can help us out with a few cans, just about everything on our complete list is needed. Thank you to those who drop a few things into the Shop n' Save bin every week when you do your own grocery run, and thank you to all of you who donate food and/or funds. If you don't have our list, please just email me back, and I'll send it to you. 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 love you all, and wish you all a wonderful week ahead!