Second Day Request: Here are five out of 15 items urgently needed by the Cambridge Food Pantry for their families and children this week as a heat alert is called for most of the week. We can’t do it all, but we can help:
Del Monte Fresh Cut Diced Canned Potatoes, Canned Vegetables, 12 Pack, 14.5Oz Cans, $17.88.
Skippy Super Chunk Peanut Butter, 16.3 Ounce (Pack of 12), $13.28.
Del Monte Fresh Cut Diced Potatoes, Canned Vegetables, 12 Pack, 14.5 Oz Can, $17.88.
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First, the Pantry has enough food for everyone who needs it, thanks to several food banks in the area.
Secondly, as happens two or three times a week now, the foods people most want and can’t afford are gone within hours of the pantry opening, which occurs three times a week (the pantry opens its doors Wednesday 1-3, Friday 4-6, and Saturday ll—1). The number of people needing food support is steadily increasing.
Many pantries only have enough food to open once a week. The Army of Good has changed this equation, repeatedly sending the most needed, wanted, and least available food. I can’t tell you how much this means to the families needing help. I went there today to see how the volunteers were doing in the heat. They didn’t seem to notice.
The 15 items on the Wish List were cleaned out over the weekend. Sarah asked for help. I asked her to choose the five most important five, and she did, and we asked for them yesterday (see below). I’m asking people out there to help if they can. Many foods are already arriving from the Army Of Good, including chunky soup, an essential food for these families.
(Chunky soup is coming in boxes and boxes.) Thank you.
This support from you good people has been transformative. Today, I went to the panty to see the weekly unloading of goods from the area’s largest food bank in Albany. Produce was not sent, presumably because of the heat. Sarah took the pantry van to get fresh products from a nearby town and some farmers.
The pantry’s new (used) truck is a Godsend; the old one is on its last bumpy, noisy, and smelly legs. It comes every Tuesday.
Again, the Cambridge Food Pantry urgently needs all 15 items on its Wish List for its families and children this week, as a heat alert is called for most of the week.
She and I chose five of the most important to the families. Families are scrambling for food and are grateful for the cases of juice and lemonade we sent them last week.
We can’t do it all, but we can help:
Del Monte Fresh Cut Diced Canned Potatoes, Canned Vegetables, 12 Pack, 14.5Oz Cans, $17.88.
Skippy Super Chunk Peanut Butter, 16.3 Ounce (Pack of 12), $13.28.
Del Monte Fresh Cut Diced Canned Potatoes, Canned Vegetables, 12 Pack, 14.5 Oz Can, $17.88.
All the above items can be purchased on the Amazon Cambridge Pantry Wish List; you can see the list and browse here or buy any other items. Sarah says they need all of them.
Sarah and the volunteers log the food to the proper storage places and ensure it goes where it should go.
I love seeing and photographing the pantry’s heroic volunteers, who seem to know when to appear and what to do and then melt away. Today was brutally hot, making me shake and exhausted, but I liked the images I got; they speak to what the pantry is all about—ordinary people giving of themselves for others. America still remembers how to do that.
Please help the pantry if possible, as long as it doesn’t harm your savings or security. Thanks so much. These donations go a long way. The food is affordable; a little help goes a long way. Thanks.