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Date: 4/25/2023
WARE — St. Mary’s Church and All Saints Church have opened a new food pantry at 17 North St., in the hall at All Saints, and will be serving the community with no questions asked.
Food pantry director Michael Letendre said all are welcome to utilize the pantry regardless of faith, and there is no application process for those seeking help. Letendre said the rules of the food pantry are simple — anybody that comes and asks for food, give it to them.
The pantry will be open on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon. Visitors are asked to enter the pantry on the North Street side of All Saints Church, using the left hand entrance.
Letendre said four or five of the people who work with the Take and Eat Program at the church “got together and decided we wanted to pull together a food pantry after seeing that there is a need in town.”
“During the pandemic, we weren’t doing hot meals, so we switched to canned goods and were able to do that instead of a hot meal. People commented that they appreciated that more as they could make more than one meal with the canned goods instead of having only one hot meal. When starting this, we had that in the back of our mind,” Letendre said.
Letendre said the idea was not to compete with the other food pantry in town — the Jubilee Cupboard — but to offer people more resources.
“We want people to realize that Jubilee Cupboard is still available, but they can also come here,” Letendre said. The Jubilee Food Cupboard, run by Trinity Episcopal Church, is only open once a week, and people can only go once a month, he said, adding he wants the public to know they can use both food pantries if there is a need. “There will just be twice as much,” and both pantries are important to the community, Letendre said.
Letendre said the group running the pantry has no idea yet the scope of how many people they will serve and what they will need, but they are looking at long-term plans. The pantry has an application out to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, which will take a few months to process and once approved, will allow them more access to resources.
In addition to food for people, there will also be pet food accessible, and the pantry has plans to bring in items like toiletries and diapers as they move forward.
Those wishing to donate can do so by dropping off non-perishable goods in the baskets located in both churches, and volunteers are always needed. To volunteer, contact Becky Desjardins at bledesjardins@comcast.net.
If you would like to donate monetarily, mail or drop off a check to either church and earmark the check for use by the food pantry.
To learn more, visit warecatholic.org/foodpantry.