Stroudwater Food Pantry Status – 4/11/21

Hi Team – This week your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 134 families and provided groceries to a total of 335 people.  105 of the families received groceries through our Last Mile home delivery program. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, food donations and purchases totaled 3,534lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam & Laura, Amy & Jake, Angie, Pastor Charlie, Deb & Greg, Deirdra & Dennis, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kelly, Michelle & Ben, Tom & Amy & Lila & Claire, and myself. 

On Sunday your Stroudwater Food Pantry took on a unique challenge; we simultaneously ran two assembly lines to manufacture boxes of groceries.  Downstairs in the church, pantry volunteers used fresh food rescued during our Friday supermarket pickups, to build grocery boxes for our Sunday drive in clients, and for our Last Mile home grocery deliveries. 

Out back in the shed, a second group of volunteers assembled boxes of non-perishable groceries for 54 families in Princeton, Washington County.  As boxes came off the line, they were loaded directly into our cargo van.  Additionally, four large Coleman coolers were filled with frozen turkeys, hams, pork roasts and chickens and were loaded up as well.  Finally, we strapped one of our upright freezers onto the pantry trailer, as a donation to Penni Theriault, our pantry food distribution contact in Princeton. 

Early Monday morning Pastor Charlie and I departed the church, driving the van and trailer up to Penni’s in Princeton.  Four hours later we unloaded the 54 grocery boxes, plugged in the freezer, and filled it with the frozen meat we brought, all in Penni’s garage. We even had a bit of time to visit with some of our other ministry contacts in Princeton and Big Lake, before returning home. 

This week’s incredible accomplishments were made possible by the hands of our amazing Stroudwater Food Pantry volunteers!  Your efforts serve both southern and central Maine, and are keeping us on pace to achieve our goal to distribute 10 tons of groceries in Washington County this year.  Thank you, and God Bless you for all that you do!!

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/