What’s On Your $25 Food Pantry Shopping List?

By Nancy K. Crevier

Local food pantries are favorite charities to support during the holiday season, and a typical donation is $25, or items with a value of about that amount.

Newtown has two food pantries. FAITH Food Pantry is located in the basement of St John’s Episcopal Church on Washington Avenue in Sandy Hook Center. The town food pantry is housed in the Social Services office at Town Hall South on South Main Street. Both are heavily utilized and need replenishing year around of nonperishables, some fresh and frozen foods, toiletries, cleaning products, and pet foods.

“We are depleted right now,” said Ann Piccini, director of Social Services in Newtown. “We need everything.” But if donors want to make sure that what they give is something that will be used, Ms Piccini suggested that there are items particularly appreciated by those who use the town food pantry.

“Canned beef stew moves, and so does soup. That flies out the door,” said Ms Piccini. “Microwavable meals and pasta and sauce are very popular, as are things like Raviolios and Spaghettios,” she said. Crushed canned tomatoes, canned fruits, peanut butter, and jelly are also useful to pantry patrons.

While the food pantry does not have refrigeration, on Mondays and Thursdays small amounts of fresh produce are accepted. It does have freezers, though, so frozen meats and vegetables are valued donations. “We will happily accept fresh meat, too, that can be frozen,” Ms Piccini said.

Those who use the town pantry are also seeking laundry detergent, dish detergent, and bleach, and any kind of pet food is a welcome addition to the pantry, she said.

The only thing that tends to not move at the town pantry, said Ms Piccini, is canned beans.

FAITH Food Pantry director Lee Paulsen said that right now, “Nothing is staying on the shelves. We are seeing one or two new families utilizing us each week, and that’s scary.”

Gift cards are always appreciated, and well used by FAITH’s “three phenomenal shoppers” who scrutinize local supermarkets for the best sales, supplemented by coupons, coins, “and everything that can be used,” she said.

What is highly valued by pantry clients are items that cannot be purchased with food stamps. “Toilet paper is very much a welcome donation,” said Ms Paulsen, “and so is shampoo, or dish detergent, or deodorants.”

Complete pancake mix, that requires only the addition of water, is a great item to donate, she said, as are cans of fruit and vegetables. “These items are expensive, but the nice thing about pancake mix is that it can be breakfast, lunch, or dinner,” Ms Paulsen said.

The FAITH Food Pantry has two freezers where donations of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken can be stored, as can margarine or butter, or frozen vegetables.

How Far Does $25 Go?

But how far does $25 go at local markets? The Newtown Bee sent me shopping to find out how to stretch that money to supply the local pantries with the optimum donation of items frequently sought by pantry shoppers.

“Look for sales when purchasing for the pantry,” suggested Ms Piccini, and that is good advice. However, sometimes the store brand buys more for the dollar than purchasing a sales item. Be sure to check the unit pricing and the price per pound.

I decided to look at how that $25 could be spent if focused on just one area — frozen foods; non-perishable items; pet foods; or toiletries and cleaning products.

Items packaged in larger quantities often featured the lowest price. But sometimes it was just a matter of a few cents between buying one large product to help one family; or three items that would help three individuals.

Paper towels, for instance, come down in price when the big 15-pack is purchased. That would only assist one consumer at a food pantry, though, unless each roll is individually wrapped and broken out by the food pantry workers. Buying paper towels packaged in threes or sixes seemed a better way to support more people; but it cost more.

The money went further than I expected in the fresh produce department. Winter squash was 69 cents a pound at one market; the average squash weighed between two and three pounds. Three butternut squash, six apples at $1.29 per pound, three medium bunches of broccoli crowns at $1.99 a pound, a five-pound bag of grapefruit for $2.99 and a five-pound bag of carrots for $3.99, a three-pound bag of onions at 2.69, five pounds of russet potatoes for $2.99, and two heads of lettuce, each at $1.69 could be had for $25. Four or more pantry shoppers might benefit from that donation.

More patrons of the local pantries could be assisted through the purchase of nonperishable items. The week I shopped, Barilla pasta, both white and whole wheat, was on sale, ten boxes for $10 at one store. I puzzled over why a four-pack of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup was priced at $4, but each individual can was more than $1 each. Progresso soups were on sale, and because they were a larger can, at two for $3, there was not a lot of difference in the price. Only one consumer would benefit from the four pack of soup, though, whereas four individual cans help four individuals. Ramen noodles were a bargain to help a big family: a 12-pack was just $2.99.

Although the Alessi brand of pasta sauce was on sale, buy one, get one free, at $6.99 a jar, Bertolli and Ragu were both a better bargain to go with those Barilli pastas. Those 24-ounce jars were $2.49 or $2.69 each, and 2 pound, 13 ounce jars of Prego sauce were just $3.79. The canned tomatoes on sale were also not the best buy. At only $1.59 per 28-ounce can, the store brand was a far better value.

Canned pasta meals, like Raviolios and Spaghettios, are $1.49 to $1.69 per 15-ounce can, and the small, 7.5-ounce Chef Boyardee pasta meals in single serving, microwavable containers cost $1.39 each.

At a price of ten for $10, applesauce was a candidate for The Bee grocery bag, as were the canned peaches, at four for $5, particularly knowing how appreciated the items would be by pantry shoppers.

Rice could be purchased ten pounds for $7.49, or even 20 pounds for $10.49; but one supermarket was selling two-pound bags of white rice at 12 for $12. The decision would have to be made again: spend a bit more and help 12 shoppers with two-pound bags, or go for it and supply someone with a large quantity of rice.

Hecker’s brand flour was $6.99 for a ten-pound bag; but the store brand was $2.49 for a five-pound bag.

Four 8.9-ounce boxes of Cheerios were on sale for $10. A 40-ounce jar of Skippy’s peanut butter was $5.99 and the store brand grape jelly was substantially less than other brands, at $2.39 for a 32-ounce jar.

So, ten boxes of pasta; four cans of canned tomatoes; a jar of Skippy peanut butter; and two cans of Progresso soup would consume the $25. Twelve bags of white rice, ten jars of applesauce, and four cans of peaches put us a bit over the $25.

Beef chuck and ground beef in packages weighing between just under two pounds to just over three pounds would run between $5 and $8, split chicken breasts were just under $1 a pound, and packed in four- to six-pound quantities. One 2-pound package of ground beef, two 4-pound packages of chicken breasts, and two 2-pound packages of beef chuck were just over the $25 limit.

Nonfood Items

If we turned our attentions to toiletries, we could support the pantry with a donation of four sticks of deodorant, on sale at two for $5, five bottles of VO5 shampoo on sale for 99 cents each, five tubes of Pepsodent toothpaste for 99 cents each, and two bottles of store brand hand lotion, for $4.69.

If shopping for cleaning supplies, two-gallon bottles of bleach cost $5 for two; two, one-gallon bottles of store brand fabric softener were on sale at a price of two for $4. Tide or Arm and Hammer laundry detergent was under $5 for a 50-ounce container, and two 24-ounce bottles of Dawn dish detergent were on sale, two for $4.

Those who must turn to a food pantry for assistance are often seeking food for pets, as well, said both pantry directors. Feeding cats and dogs is a great expense for those on a tight budget. The Bee’s $25 would go quickly, if spent on pet food. For $8, a 16-pound bag of dry dog food, Dad’s, could be purchased at one store, and ten cans of Pedigree wet dog food could be purchased for $10. Friskie’s wet cat food, was on sale at ten for $4. Dad’s brand dry cat food was $10 for a 16-pound bag. Because the stores offer the sales price per item, we could get one bag each of dry cat and dog food, five cans of wet dog food, and five cans of wet cat food for our $25.

 Making the most of $25 turned out to be a challenge. Ultimately, I decided to buy products that the food pantry clients most need. Six boxes of complete pancake mix, ten cans of fruit, and six cans of soup were split between the two local pantries.

The Bee donation will take up only a tiny portion of shelf space in the pantries. But several donations of $25, or even $5 or $10, worth of goods will quickly restock the pantry shelves with a variety of needed items. It is a one-time challenge for donors, but an ongoing challenge for pantry workers and clients. Challenge yourself. How far will your $25 go?