The act of giving is the ability to give selflessly and willingly. As the holiday season approaches and folks prepare their to-do list, feelings of gratitude inspires people to reflect and think about others; it’s a reminder that everyday is an opportunity to give.
The West Springfield/Agawam Parish Cupboard are looking for stuffing, mash potatoes, gravy, eggs, vegetables, anything that goes on a Thanksgiving table.
Executive Director Robert Fastie said, “Right now, I think we’re okay with turkeys, but we’re looking for all the fixings that go with the turkeys.”
Established in 1986, the West Springfield/Agawam Parish Cupboard is a nonprofit organization that serves the towns of West Springfield, Agawam and Feeding Hills, providing meals and groceries to families and individuals in need. They have two main programs: an Emergency Food Program, where registered households can receive groceries once a month, and a Hot Lunch Program, where anyone can get a nutritious meal, five days a week, at no charge. They also have a wish list on their website of what they ask for each month. November’s wish list is cereal, coffee, pasta & sauce, canned soup, and Thanksgiving Fixings.
The Parish Cupboard is a client-choice pantry where folks come in and work with a volunteer to pick out what they want to eat.
“We’re pretty steady,” said Fastie. “We get about the same amount of families every month we just give away a little more during the holidays. We’re giving families of three or more a turkey and fixings on top of their regular groceries. And the day before Thanksgiving, have a turkey dinner here.”
Springfield resident Carol Fabrycki has been with the Parish Cupboard for a number of years. When she heard about the Parish Cupboard from former director, Martha Tighe, she told her she was interested in volunteering and was approved. Fabrycki usually volunteers in the food pantry on Monday mornings giving food to clients. She also covers for the Intake Coordinator in the office if needed and serves lunch if needed. She is also on the Parish Cupboard Annual Golf Committee where she is in charge of the dinner fundraising prizes.
“I love working with all the volunteers,” Fabrycki said. “My favorite part is meeting the clients and being able to give them something that they need. The Parish Cupboard is a place for them to come and know when they enter our door that we are a place that will show respect.”
The Parish Cupboard is located at 738 Main St. in West Springfield. Their food pantry is open Monday through Friday from 9-11 a.m. Lunch is served from 11:10 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and donations are accepted from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Visit its website at theparishcupboard.org and follow them on Facebook. For questions, call 413-734-7969 or email parishcupboard@aol.com.
Our Community Food Pantry, located at 222 College Hwy. in Southwick, are collecting donations for their Thanksgiving Day Food distribution event. The event is a drive-thru distribution on Nov. 25.
Director of Operations Sally Munson said, “We are in need of donations and monetary donations. The holiday season is one of our busiest times.”
She continued, “We are blessed that the Southwick Community Episcopal Church will provide the turkeys that we need. Their support over the pass few years has been amazing. We are looking for gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. We are working with local farmers and vendors to receive fresh produce. We are also looking for cake mixes and frosting as we head towards Christmas, we can put cake mixtures and frosting together to make some extra goodies for people.”
Our Community Food Pantry is a a 501c3 organization. Their mission is to feed the hungry in the three towns of Southwick, Granville and Tolland weekly; never turning away a family in need and their vision is to help alleviate hunger one visit at a time.
“We’re a client-choice, so they get to choose what they want and what they need,” Munson said. “We feel very strongly that we want to treat the clients with respect, individuality and service to their needs.”
Our Community Food Pantry serves in-house over a hundred families a week and deliver to 40 households in the Southwick area with the help of volunteers and Door Dash. They have four ladies that come in weekly and make up two bags one with non-perishable and the other with a variety of fresh produce dairy and protein. Our Community Food Pantry does food rescue daily from Big Y in Southwick. They work with the Food Bank, Rachel’s Table, local farmers and community groups. They also have programs such as Adopt-A-Shelf, Plant a Row and a Kid’s Bag Program that consists of five breakfasts, five lunches, five snacks and five drinks per week for each enrolled child during school vacations.
In 2010, the Southwick Family Support Coalition closed because of significant state budget cuts. One of the longest-standing programs of the coalition was the operation of a local food pantry that began in 1988. Understanding that the community’s most vulnerable residents had come to rely on the coalition’s assistance to meet basic food needs, a group of six volunteers formed a 501c3 organization in early 2011 under the legal name of Our Community Food Pantry, Inc. (OCFP). Our Community Food Pantry is currently the only no-cost source of food assistance for low-and moderate-income households in the Southwick-Tolland-Granville area. Munson became the director in October of 2011. When she started this, it was supposed to be for a short time to get the pantry up and running. Now, Munson has been the director for 14 years.
“I’m just blessed to be able to serve our community, but I could not do this without my assistant Meg Raggio, support of our Board of Directors and a wonderful team of volunteers,” Munson said. “We have a great team of volunteers; we try to keep three months of food in the pantry at all times and we’re always trying to think ahead.”
She went on to say, “We do have some great programs as far as different ways to bring different options into the pantry. We try to make it like a community visit. It’s important to us that everyone is treated with respect and it’s a positive experience.
Our Community Food Pantry’s hours of operation for distribution are Mondays from 2-4 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon and Thursdays from 4-6 p.m. For more information, go to their website at ourcommunityfoodpantry.org and their Facebook page. Anyone interested must be signed for the Thanksgiving Day Food distribution event by the Nov. 21. For details call 413-569-9876.
