Many Have Helped

Stock The Faith Food Pantry

To the Editor:

This holiday season reminds us of all our blessings, among them are family, friends, and a wonderful hometown. What makes this town so special is the incredible outpouring of concern for our neighbors in need.

Throughout the year the FAITH Food Pantry is the place where blessings are a regular occurrence. The civic organizations, the churches, the local merchants, and the townspeople are a constant source of both food and money for the pantry. Our clients are so fortunate to have a place to come when they know a portion of their daily struggle will be met as a result of the generosity of their neighbors.

The firefighters “Fill The Fire Truck” food drive brought in a record number of boxes of food and cash as a result of their hard work at Stop & Shop and Big Y Supermarkets. Think of all the time and effort the fire companies give to this community as a result of local emergencies. Then for them to give up an entire Saturday of their free time to run a tremendously successful food drive…it’s no wonder why this is such a special community.

St Rose’s Social Concerns Committee, the Youth Group, the Knights of Columbus, and the parishioners all come together throughout the year to provide for FAITH. Joan Dwyer is the tireless organizer who has made such a difference for our pantry. The most recent food drive from St Rose brought us 111 bags of food.

The Lion’s Club supports us throughout the entire year with both donations of food and money and of their time. Every Thursday evening a member of the Lions Club is present at the food pantry, giving of both time and effort to help the pantry function.

The Woman’s Club of Newtown is another civic organization who continues to help us over the years, going back so long I can’t remember!

The Stop & Shop with its Food for Friends Campaign is the largest financial contributor to the pantry and they are always there to help out when we do our purchasing of food.

The Big Y provides us with a wonderful shopping spree every year and they also allow us to have a Big Y coin collection location where people can donate their unused coins to be distributed to our clients.

There are the wonderful scout troops and school organizations who remember us throughout the year.

Thank you to the many local churches and church groups who never forget our mission and support us generously.

But my favorite stories are those of the kids who come up with unique ideas for collecting donations. Just recently, C.J. Spath, Dan Creaturo, and Patrick Merring decided to go through their neighborhoods during the Thanksgiving holiday and collect food for the pantry. There are the kids who will request donations to the food pantry instead of gifts at their birthday parties. The Genesis kids dressed up in costumes and went trick-or-treating asking for donations of food.

Creativity coupled with kindness is what makes these acts of generosity such a blessing to the entire community. I don’t want to forget to count our tireless group of loyal volunteers as one of FAITH Food Pantry’s most important blessings. So many of you have given your time for many, many years and without you, none of the important work of FAITH would occur.

On behalf of the volunteers and clients of the FAITH Food Pantry, I would like to once again thank all of you who have helped us throughout the past year and wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season.

Sincerely,

Nancy Taylor

3 Washington Avenue, Sandy Hook                         December 1, 2004