NHS Senior Still Hoping To Make A Difference—

Labor Day Parade Will See

The Return Of FAITH Food Pantry Food Drive

By Shannon Hicks

As she prepares for her senior year of high school, Newtown resident Breanne Lubinsky is also planning for her third — and perhaps final, depending on what her summers are like once she hits the collegiate study circuit — Labor Day Parade food drive for FAITH Food Pantry.

Newtown’s 49th annual celebration of Labor Day will return on Monday, September 6, and Breanne is hoping parade spectators will once again pull items from their pantries and/or dig into their pockets. Last year she and her family — mom Linda, dad Peter and brother Alex — and plenty of friends had three trucks available for the parade and as they walked the route, they collected more than 1,500 items for the food pantry for the second year.

One Can Make(s) A Difference was the brainchild of Breanne two years ago, when the then-Newtown High School sophomore was working toward her Girl Scout Gold Award. It was the year FAITH Food Pantry celebrated its 30th anniversary, and a feature that ran in The Newtown Bee that spring sparked an idea for Breanne.

While she admitted that part of the work going into creating One Can Make(s) A Difference would help her accumulate the 30 community service hours needed for the Girl Scout honor, Breanne pointed out that her real desire was to help others.

“The Girl Scout award helped me think about doing something good, but it isn’t the main reason for doing this food drive. I’m doing this because hunger is a year-round thing. Many people think about hunger and collecting food during the holidays, but I want to do something now,” she told The Bee in August 2008.

FAITH Food Pantry, which operates from the basement of St John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, is still counted on by dozens of families on a regular basis. Last month alone, 65 families — representing 177 clients — turned to the pantry for help.

According to Lee Paulsen, a former chair of FAITH Food Pantry and a volunteer who has been involved since day one, FAITH helped create 3,224 meals last year. The all-volunteer pantry helped 151 adults, 57 children, and 19 seniors during the course of 2009.

People still need help. In just the first six months of this year, there were already 162 adults, 62 children, and 20 senior citizens who received aid from FAITH. Mrs Paulsen said 3,406 meals had been accounted for.

So when the Labor Day Parade returns in less than a month, Breanne and her crew are hoping to see plenty of plastic bags with at least one nonperishable item in them ready to be picked up. Putting donations into plastic shopping bags makes it easier for the volunteers to collect the donations, and the bags can then be reused when food pantry volunteers pack up items to send home with clients.

Breanne has set a collection goal of 2,000 items this year, which is a midway point between the 2,455 items collected during her inaugural parade appearance and last year’s tally of 1,500 items.

The public is asked to do two things to make the 2010 One Can Make(s) A Difference collection a success again. The first is to check expiration dates before donating items. It does no good to receive canned goods if they have to be thrown right out rather than put into the hands of people who need help putting meals on the table.

The second is to make sure donations are on the side of the road — like the dozens of lawn chairs that traditionally line the parade route hours before marchers step off Monday morning — before the One Can folks reach them. Being able to pick up the bags quickly will keep the One Can volunteers moving steadily down Main Street, across Glover Avenue, and then along Queen Street.

If nonperishable items are forgotten, financial donations are also accepted. In 2008 One Can Make(s) A Difference received $200 in donations during the parade. Last year that number jumped to $1,300, which was used by FAITH Food Pantry volunteers to supplement their shelves with stock from the Connecticut Food Bank. Shopping there, as well as at other grocery stores and cooperatives, allows FAITH to offer oleo, peanut butter, chicken, hamburger, kielbasa, and hot dogs to those who find their way to the food pantry when it is open on Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings.

Big Y coins are also accepted by the One Can crew.

What Is Needed

FAITH Food Pantry currently has plenty of soup and pasta. Those are about the only things it has a good supply of.

The following items are on the wish list of FAITH Food Pantry and Breanne Lubinsky for the 2010 Labor Day Parade Food Drive. Just one item from each person lining the parade will make a great difference to the pantry.

*canned spaghetti sauce

*peanut butter

*jelly

*canned stew/hash

*healthy kids’ snacks

*canned fruit

*Chef Boyardee products

*toothbrushes and toothpaste

*toilet paper

*complete pancake mix

*syrup

*canned fruit and vegetables

*macaroni & cheese

*coffee

*healthy cereal

*rice and beans

*shampoo, soap