Food Pantry/Plant a Row Update – November 9, 2009
As Thanksgiving approaches, we at The Pantry have so much to be grateful for. New donors keep coming in — at this point more than 300 gardeners, donors, and volunteers have contributed to The Pantry. (And this number is substantially understated. Some donors are anonymous and some contribute through stores, businesses, organizations, or churches and so aren’t identified individually.) Many have come together to ensure that those in our community going through hard times have food.
At last count, 226 households had signed up for The Pantry, representing more than 500 individuals. The Pantry’s been busier than ever recently — some days 30 shoppers come through.
The Pantry has seen an uptick in vegetable donations over the last two weeks: 359 lbs of broccoli, turnips, cauliflower, chard, greens, lettuce, peppers, beans, squash, and tomatoes came in through Plant a Row gardeners. A big thank-you to The Farm at Sunnyside for donating 206 lbs of this total. Fruit was plentiful, as well, thanks in large part to Moore Orchard’s 211 lbs of apples.
Other donations over the past two weeks include 70 doz eggs, 56 qts of milk, 40 lbs of butter and 14 lbs of cheese, and 792 lbs of canned, boxed and other supermarket food. A special thank-you to Trinity Episcopal Church and Warren Hackney’s class at Fauquier High School for their generosity. And, while many individual donors are so giving, some are really amazing: Jackie Bruce, Louise Van Dort, Esther Settle, and Betty Price stood out.
Bill Boelte donated 50 lbs of venison — all of which went out the door the same day that it came into The Pantry. Please remember The Pantry if you hunt.
We need volunteers to box and distribute frozen turkeys and other Thanksgiving dinner items, particularly on Monday, November 23, and Tuesday, November 24. Email PlantaRowRapp@aol.com, call 987-7208, or stop by The Pantry to sign up to work a morning or afternoon shift those days. The Pantry will be closed Thanksgiving and Saturday, November 28.
The Rappahannock National Bank will donate $1,000 toward Thanksgiving dinners for Pantry recipients. This will go a long way toward filling those boxes. If you’d like to contribute toward the Thanksgiving dinners, you can bring a check made out to “Fauquier Community Action Committee” to The Pantry. Please write “Rappahannock Food Pantry” in the memo section of the check. You can also mail checks to:
Fauquier Community Action Committee
Rappahannock Pantry Thanksgiving Dinner
50 Sullivan Street Suite A
Warrenton, VA 20186