Food Drive Falls Short

By Kaaren Valenta

The rear loading dock at the Newtown Post Office was filled with volunteers last Saturday as the letter carriers conducted their 11th annual food drive. The need could not be greater as local food pantries are struggling to keep ahead of the need.

“This year’s post office food drive in Newtown collected only about half of what had been collected in previous years, a shortfall that the local organizers are hoping to correct. We got enough to stock our shelves but there was nothing to put in storage,” said Ann Piccini of the town’s Social Services Department, which operates a food pantry in Town Hall South.

“At the rate that it’s going we probably have enough food to last a month and a half. By midsummer, it will all be gone.”

Doris Bulmer, co-chairman of the FAITH Food Pantry housed in St John’s Church in Sandy Hook, said the FAITH Food Pantry was jammed the week before the food drive.

“The numbers of people using the food pantry are overwhelming,” she said. “Last Tuesday we had 17 individuals who picked up food for a total of 30 people. On a normal Tuesday it would be six or eight people.

“Needless to say everything in the pantry went out the door,” she said.

Mrs Bulmer said there may be an occasional person who should not be using the food pantry, but most have a real need.

“More people are just trying to stay on their feet,” she said, “but I’m surprised at how many more people we have now.”

Most of the people who use the pantries, use one or the other, not both. “I’ve checked the list and we only had a crossover of about three people,” Mrs Piccini said on Wednesday. “Yesterday we had a family of five and about six other people.”

Last Saturday the volunteers collected and sorted an estimated 6,000 pounds of canned and packaged food., compared to about 12,000 pounds last year. The food stocks both the town’s food pantry and the FAITH Food Pantry, an ecumenical project supported by many of Newtown’s churches.

The drive is organized by the National Letter Carriers Union, which supplies local postal carriers with promotional material including post cards that are sent to all residents. The economy may have played a role in the diminished collection and the good weather had many families involved in sports and other activities that day, but there also was a glitch that resulted in no postcards being mailed in some communities..

 “Part of the problem may have been that the post cards didn’t go out to residents,” said Rob Frangione, who organizes the drive locally. “We didn’t receive them this year. There was publicity in The Bee but many people rely on the post card. They put them on their refrigerators as a reminder.”

Most towns apparently received their post cards so the national union does not plan to hold another drive. But the letter carriers in Newtown are taking steps to make sure that the pantries do not run out of food.

“The postmaster has agreed to put the hamper out in the lobby all this week and next week [at the post office on Commerce Road] for anyone who would still like to contribute,” Mr Frangione said. “We would also welcome food coupons from businesses. Any business that who wants to contribute can call me at 426-4271.”

Mr Frangione said he is hoping to do another local food drive in August with the help of local youth organizations.

Mrs Piccini said the town’s food pantry recently received a $1,000 check from ShopRite in Brookfield that she will use to get food from the Connecticut Food Warehouse in Waterbury, a facility that supplies perishable food to food banks.

“Our freezers are bare so we really need the donations,” Mrs Piccini said. “Anyone who would like to donate food can bring it to our office [in the lower level of Town Hall South, below the police department] any weekday.”