Thank You!

On Friday April 1^st I received a call from Target Stores in Plainville; would I want to take a pallet of meat that was delivered to their store? This was no April Fool’s joke! I sent Merrill Falk in our truck out to Target to get the load, as I gathered a few helpers to unload when Merrill returned. We worked feverishly getting all the items off the truck and stacked in the hallway. What we thought was one pallet of items, turned out to be FOUR pallets of meat, dairy, and produce.  Once the truck was unloaded and my refrigerator and freezers where completely full, I went out to survey what was remaining in the hallway. I couldn’t believe what was still there, more than 80 cases of meat and no place to put it! That’s when I began to call other organizations and people I knew to see if we could use anyone’s refrigerator or freezer. We ended up with meat in Centenary United Methodist Church, Attleboro Enterprises, Inc., and at LaSalette Shrine. Once the commotion of the moment was over I decided to make a list of places I could use if this event happened again. I called Sean Healey at HeBo Family Foods who was more than happy to allow us space in his refrigerator and freezer any time we need it! In fact we stored our Easter hams at HeBo Family Foods before distributing them this year.

Not only do I want to thank Target in Plainville for the wonderful donation of meats, but I want to sincerely thank John Raposa at AEI and Brother Roger at LaSalette for helping us out in a frantic pinch! And a big thank you to Sean Healey for his continued support of Hebron Food Pantry!

Michelle Burch

Director

 Community Support Helps Get It Done!

We have been very blessed with many organizations and church groups that help Hebron Food Pantry. I would like to highlight a few groups that have donated their time, energy, money, food and or non-food items to help benefit the food pantry.

On November 19, 2010 we had a group headed by Kelly D. Fox of Ameriprise Financial Group from

Plainville, MA. Thank you to the over 20 willing, enthusiastic, able volunteers to reorganize and clean shelving, wash walls and floors, defrost and clean out two upright freezers, taking a huge load of cardboard to recycling and stuffing over 600 envelopes. We also would like to thank you for the food donations, and grocery gift cards for the food pantry. On December 12, 2010 we had a Youth Group from the Central Congregational Church in Attleboro Falls, MA come in to help sort through food donated from the City of Attleboro Holiday Spirit Food Drive. During February school vacation we had a visit from the Daisy Troop 991 in Attleboro. After a brief tour and information on what the food pantry is about, the girls couldn’t wait to organize the bread, the canned vegetable shelf and any other shelf they could reach! The girls also brought in personal care items to donate that they organized on the shelves.

The Evangelical Covenant Church in Attleboro church members and youth groups have been a huge supporter of the food pantry. They collect food items, donate money, and volunteer for projects. The youth raised money during the Attleboro Area Homelessness Awareness Weekend in November. Then in April their Middle School youth group sponsored an Eat Simply Café, for $5 you could eat a simple soup, bread, (no butter) and water. The motto was ‘Eat Simply so that others may simply eat’.  This simple meal raised over $800 for the food pantry!

We also have been hosts to school projects where students want to learn about food pantries, and about volunteerism. We had a Girl Scout working on her Bronze Award volunteer on Thursday nights and organizing a food and personal care drive in her neighborhood. We had donor whose employer donates items to a non-profit once a year, who took it upon herself to encourage other employees to take advantage of the program and donate the items to Hebron Food Pantry. A young man at Attleboro High School in the welding department offered to repair one of our carts that we use to unload food items and transport food boxes to our senior client’s cars. We have a small church in North Attleboro that makes a food donation to our pantry every month. We also have a family that goes to BJ’s to purchase hundreds of dollars of food to then bring to the food pantry for our clients. (see the picture)

As I have said we have been very blessed with support from our community. Many other people have graciously donated food items or money to help benefit our neighbors in the Greater Attleboro area.  We would like to thank you all for your continued support of our mission to alleviate hunger.