August Food Deliveries

Upcoming food delivery dates and times are Tuesday August 10 at 12:15, Wednesday August 11 at 1:30, Wednesday August 18 at 1:30 and Wednesday August 25 at 3:15. Helping unload and store the cases of food received in these deliveries is an excellent opportunity for you to support the Saint Anthony's Food Pantry. If you are available at any of the delivery times for the month of August let us know by calling Paula, the Food Pantry Coordinator at 508-993-1691.

Please note that you can check for upcoming deliveries and other pantry activity by looking at our calendar here or using the link under "Basic Pantry Information" in the menu on the right.

Thank You Again Student Helpers

Yesterday students from Saint Francis Xavier School in Acushnet as well as young family members of some of our regular volunteers were back at the pantry helping out.

They were busy, busy, busy ... setting up tables; building grocery bags of non-perishables; bringing in produce from the refrigerator truck; preparing lunches; sorting and setting out clothing; wheeling in handtrucks loaded with cases of apple juice, milk, eggs, cheese, sausage patties, diapers and more for distribution; keeping the pantry entrance lines moving smoothly; folding cardboard for recycling; stacking and wrapping empty banana boxes; sweeping; cleaning; tossing out bags of trash; pitching in to help with any and all of the routine pantry tasks where their help was needed ... and in addition several of the students had a special task of distributing ice cream to people waiting in line before the pantry opened.

We were happy to have the student helpers here ... and so were the many folks who received ice cream. Thank you again.

June Report

On the four Thursdays that the pantry was open this June we provided 2,684 bags of groceries to help a total of 671 families ... in those households there were 592 children under the age of 18. During June we also served 837 meals.

These figures reflect the help our pantry is providing to address the current situation where "one in every six Americans is in need of food assistance".

Providing groceries and lunches requires many volunteers and right now we have 83 persons listed as serving in the pantry. We couldn't do what we are doing without their help ... perhaps you would like to help as well ... if so please contact Paula Briden, Food Pantry Coordinator, by phone at 508-993-1691 or by email at bpaula1@comcast.net .

Fresh produce is a very important part of our pantry operation and we are happy to note that Saint Anthony's is now listed at AmbleHarvest.org where gardeners can help diminish hunger by sharing excess garden produce with neighborhood pantries. We are looking forward to bountiful partnerships with the gardeners who contact us through this organization.

The Baby Project

Each Thursday at Saint Anthony's Food Pantry, we host the independently run Baby Project; founded and administered by Diane Bolton since 2006. Diane attentively serves the many mothers and children who come to the Saint Anthony's Food Pantry with diapers, baby formula, and other support.

In order to fund the Baby Project requires a good amount of fund raising on Diane's part. Two important sources for money are the Postcard Project and the Aluminum Project. Profits from the sale of enlarged postcard reproductions and recycled soda cans are very important to sources of revenue for the Baby Project.

Donations of empty soda cans will be accepted at the Saint Anthony's Food Pantry any Thursdays from noon to 1:30 P.M.

Checks must be made out to The Baby Project or Diane Bolton.

Please do not make out checks to the Saint Anthony Food Pantry, as the Baby Project is independently run.

For more information, call Diane Bolton at (508) 994-8421.

Which Came First?

On most Thursdays since mid 2008, from before his appearance on ABC's 20/20 with Elizabeth Vargas last April to tell of the miracle that changed his life and since then as well, Joe Amaral can be found quietly and humbly working alongside the many other volunteers at the Saint Anthony's Food Pantry … well humbly anyway but probably not quietly … Joe likes to talk with the people who come to the pantry for food and they like to talk with him. There is never a shortage of things to talk about ... the weather, local sports and of course food. A wide variety of food is distributed at the pantry and quite frequently chickens and eggs are among the food given out. Recently Joe's discussions have been, not surprisingly if you know Joe, about "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Good question right? The many persons coming through the pantry have many different thoughts on this and Joe has his as well … he's able to give answers from a multitude of perspectives … theological, dictionary order, biological, and even food pantry counter position … but it's obvious that the friendly conversation and not the exact answer is what is most important to Joe and the pantry visitors.

But if you want to move beyond the chicken and egg question, if you want to get serious, and want to really know "What comes first?" Joe will tell you that for him the answer is very easy. For Joe "God comes first".

July Food Deliveries

Food delivery dates for this month are Tuesday July 13 at 12:15, Wednesday July 14 at 1:15, Wednesday July 21 at 1:15 and Wednesday July 28 at 3:15. Helping unload and store the cases of food received in these deliveries is an excellent opportunity for you to support the Saint Anthony's Food Pantry. If you are available to help at any of the delivery times for the month of July let us know by calling Paula, the Food Pantry Coordinator at 508-993-1691.

Please note that you can check for upcoming deliveries and other pantry activity by looking at our calendar here or using the link under "Basic Pantry Information" in the menu on the right.

May Report

On the four Thursdays that the pantry was open this May we provided 2,948 bags of groceries to help a total of 737 families ... 664 of those households we helped had children under the age of 18. During May we also served 947 meals.

Every item donated goes to help someone. A can of tuna, a jar of peanut butter or a can of soup can make the difference between someone going to bed hungry or not. Thank you for each and every donation.