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Date: 8/24/2022
WARE – Since the beginning of the summer, Ware resident Aida Campos has been picking up food that hasn’t been purchased from local distributors and giving it away on the corner of High Street to people for free. She has provided staples such as milk, bread, juice, water, granola, half and half, coffee and cereals, as well as chicken, shrimp, bacon, hot dogs, hamburgers diapers, cat food and dog food. Campos does this four times a week and rents a U-Haul truck to do so.
This is not a one-woman operation, however. Campos works with her neighbors Nick Denitis, Tim and Becky Shea along with their son Brannon, Michelle Kibbe and Jose C, who are always there to help her. Jose prices the truck, Brannon carries the food, Denitis controls the traffic, Tim is in charge of the lines and Becky and Kibbe keep a watchful eye on the food.
Ware resident Jennifer Harper lives right down the street from where food is distributed and said she heard about it through her family. “I’ve gotten food from them and they’re the greatest people in the world,” Harper said.
Recently, Campos has given away $1,500 worth of toys and 5,000 boxes of alcohol wipes, Lysol and hand sanitizer.
“Everything started with my head pastor Evelyn Edwards,” Campos responded. “She and her husband Julio Edwards own La Hora Zero on WLHZ 107.9 FM which is the biggest Christian radio station we have. About four times a week, we get a trailer full of food and she distributes the food in the areas of Springfield and Ware.”
She continued, “I had a dream in 2020 of giving away a hundred gallons of free milk in front of my house and people were stopping by getting milk. That was the dream I had, so I called Walmart and got over $100 of milk. I put it in the front of my house and my dream came true. People were lining up to get milk.”
Campos talked to her head pastor about what she did, and she sent a large trailer to her driveway with loads of items. Then Campos posted a message on the Ware Helps Ware forum on Facebook and in less than 30 minutes her driveway had about 180 people. Now, she has residents from Brimfield and Hardwick coming down to pick up food.
“I don’t care if you’re from Springfield, Holyoke or Worcester, we just want you to come and grab food,” Campos added. “I’m going to continue doing this until someone stops me. We want people to have food and do the best we can.”
For more information on when food can be picked up, visit the Ware Helps Ware forum on Facebook where Campos posts her next giveaways.