FAITH Pantry Has Many Supporters

To the Editor,

There is no way I can thank all the generous people and businesses of Newtown for all they have given to the clients of the FAITH Food Pantry. We are currently bulging at the seams from all the food donated this past holiday season. There are so many people to thank for this “problem,” but I especially want to thank our volunteers for all their hard work over the last year and to the parishioners of St John’s Episcopal Church for their patience as we crowd their basement with unsightly boxes.

In addition to the individual donations, we’ve continued to receive contributions from countless civic, church, social, school and scouting groups. A public thanks to you all, and to anyone I’ve forgotten to mention. There are some donors I’d like to publicly recognize for their efforts.

We recently received our annual donation raised by all the wonderful people who took part in the CROP Walk. Our thanks to all of the churches and to those who helped organize and those who took part in the walk.

The employees of the Newtown Stop & Shop recently donated half the proceeds from their annual Food for Friends fund-raiser. Many employees put in hours of effort to raise money for both FAITH and the Monroe Food Pantry. We also receive baked goods every week from our friends at Stop & Shop. The sweets bring smiles to the faces of our clients.

In November, the Knights of Columbus and the St Rose Youth Group flooded our basement with bag after bag of groceries and paper products. It will be months before we distribute all the food. They have already asked how soon they can have another food drive.

Just this past Sunday, the United Methodist Church youth group added to the piles of boxes with the proceeds of their Souper Sunday. The many bags of groceries and the monetary donation will help many of our clients.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank The Newtown Bee for their interest and support of our work. The millennium messages published in The Bee resulted in significant contributions. They will be used to provide our clients with items not usually donated or available for purchase at the Connecticut Food Bank.

As you can see, we are so fortunate to live in a town where neighbors have genuine concern for each other. This concern for the hungry has simply filled the food pantry to the brim and provided us with enough food to meet our clients’ needs for many months to come. Our clients thank you, the volunteers thank you and especially our wonderful shoppers who carry load after load of supplies, they thank you.

Sincerely,

Nancy Taylor

FAITH Food Pantry

5 Washington Avenue, Sandy Hook                    January 24, 2000