Assistant Director Meg Raggio (left) and Director Sally Munson with Our Community Food Pantry are asking for the community’s help to stock this shelf with items its needs for its clients.
Reminder Publishing photo by Cliff Clark
SOUTHWICK — While the holiday season is over, the mission of Our Community Food Pantry is reintroducing its Adopt-A-Shelf program to provide essential items to the families who rely on the pantry.
“We want to hit it again,” said pantry Director Sally Munson on Jan. 21, only a few feet from the counter where over 120 families each week pick up their groceries.
Last May, the pantry announced it had started it Adopt-A-Shelf program and Munson said initially there was a great deal of interest by area families, businesses and civic organizations.
However, since then interest has dropped off and only a handful of families still maintain a shelf at the pantry, which is located 222 College Hwy.
The pantry started the program to provide the families it serves with items that can be too expensive, like coffee and tea, preserves or jellies, and breakfast cereal.
But Munson and Assistant Director Meg Raggio said that families and organizations that provided items like deodorant and cleaning supplies were very popular with its clients in Southwick, Granville and Tolland.
“The Southwick Lions Club had a shelf with laundry detergent. That went down very, very well,” Munson said.
She also recognized former Southwick police officer Kirk Sanders and his wife for adopting a shelf with cleaning supplies and included powdered bleach, dishwashing soap, and baking soda.
And pantry volunteer Ian White and his wife Judy Hyde for maintaining a shelf filled with soups, coffee and tea, she said.
Other who participated in the program were the Wildwood Property Owners Community in Tolland also provided coffee, pantry volunteer Deb Herath with snack, RJC Bookkeeping with condiments, the Rotary Club of Southwick, and the Cigal and Bernardara families.
She also said that one family adopted a shelf in memory of a loved one who had passed.
Munson explained that those who adopt-a-shelf should be prepared to stock 120 items for each week they participate.
“It’s one item per family per week,” she said.
And their level of participation is entirely up to them, she said.
She also suggested these items the pantry could provide: tea, coffee, cake mix, hot cocoa mix, hearty soups, rice or pasta dinner boxes, cereal, fresh produce and condiments.
Before the holiday season, the pantry sent out is annual appeal letter asking the community to help continue its mission.
Munson wanted to remind the community the needs of those facing food insecurity never stops.
She said any contribution helps the pantry purchase essential food items and maintain its facility.
When the pantry moved into its new facility in December 2023, the one unknown for its board of directors was the monthly energy expense. It moved from a 1,020-square-foot house next to the now-closed United Methodist Church to a newly built 1,800-square-foot structure next door. Keeping the larger building comfortable for its volunteers and clients has increased its monthly utility bill.
“Our expenses are higher, but the families we provide food assistance to has not decreased,” Munson said.
And while inflation has cooled in recent months, anyone who has shopped for food recently know prices have remained high.
In the appeal letter, Munson and Raggio wrote: “By providing access to nutritious foods, we enable children to focus on their education, empower families to pursue employment opportunities, and seniors maintain their well-being.”
Munson said that most of the families that rely on the pantry for food have at least member of the household who are working, but just can’t make ends meet.
While its freezing outside right now, gardeners are already planning for the spring planting.
Munson wanted to remind gardeners that the pantry is again asking them to plant a row them.
Last year, she said, 11 gardeners participated in the program and delivered over 2,000 pounds of produce for the pantry’s clients.
For more information on the pantry’s programs, visit ourcommunityfoodpantry.org or call 413-569-9876.
The pantry is a 501c3 nonprofit. All donations are tax deductible.
