Winslow food pantry helps neighbors in need

WINSLOW, Maine — The Fantastic Shepherd Food stuff Lender distributes food items to pantries across the condition of Maine that assist local community customers. A single of all those pantries is the Winslow Local community Cabinet.

Positioned future to the Winslow Congregational Church in Winslow, it is really open up from 8 a.m. to midday and 4 to 6 p.m. on the 2nd and fourth Thursdays every single month. Bottiglierie explained volunteers also are willing to make home deliveries for people today who are unable to discover transportation to the pantry.

The pantry to start with opened its doors in March of 2020. Bruce Bottiglierie and a different member of the Winslow Congregational Church opened it simply because they observed there was a better want to enable people today going through meals insecurity. Bottiglierie reported the only other pantry in their neighborhood is open for 1 working day each and every thirty day period for 1 hour, and it wasn’t sufficient. 

Bottiglierie mentioned he originally meant for the meals cabinet to provide the increased Winslow neighborhood, but as the pandemic progressed they commenced serving to folks who needed it all more than Maine. 

He reported they commenced off serving about 40 people. Just last 7 days the pantry served 215 family members. Very last thirty day period on your own, they dispersed 50,000 lbs of food, Bottiglierie reported.  

This pantry is various from the norm, in that it caters to its clients’ wants and wants, he claimed. In doing so, they’re also limiting food squander.

“We are not just pre-boxing food and offering it to an individual, mainly because we never know if we’re handing absent food items or wasting foods that they really don’t take in or they’re allergic to,” Bottiglierie reported.

Rebecca Adam of Winslow reported she became the sole supplier for her family members through the pandemic. She claimed she to start with discovered about the Winslow Community Cabinet by a pal of hers who volunteered there.

“I actually like this pantry since I really don’t feel like a range,” Adams said.

Adams claimed the volunteers generally make her truly feel welcome and relaxed, and she appreciates the quality and amount of meals she’s able to carry home to her teens.

“With the value of food growing, every other time I go to the grocery store meat is far more high priced, to consume healthful it fees a good deal,” Adams stated.

Bottiglierie felt strongly about commencing this pantry because he seasoned foodstuff insecurity expanding up in New Jersey. As the son of a one mother or father, he mentioned they relied on foods banks.

“I bear in mind days of just taking in one particular can of a vegetable as my meal and not owning anything in the pantries,” Bottiglierie mentioned.

Bottiglierie explained they have nearly doubled the number of families they serve considering that this earlier December, and nearly 50 % of them are around the age of 60.

The generate-through operation works by acquiring the clients initially examining off what they will need from a list of grocery solutions. Then the volunteers get to function, filling up boxes to complete their get. The packing containers are then sent to every motor vehicle.

Adams reported now that her young children are adolescents, they care far more about their image, so with the dollars she is in a position to help you save on getting groceries, she is capable to use all those money to assistance them enhance their closets. 

“If we can save a loved ones $20-30 that they can set possibly added in their oil tank or they can take their baby out for an excess deal with, then we’ve done our position,” Bottiglierie mentioned.

Bottiglierie mentioned on any given Thursday they’re open up, they have had up to 25 volunteers serving to out. He mentioned a huge component of that assist will come from pupil volunteers at Temple Christian Academy in Waterville. Bottiglierie stated the principal delivers students to the pantry, and they keep for three hrs to help load packing containers and convey them out to the automobiles. 

The pantry depends strictly on donations, so any contribution aids. 

For all those who require rapid meals support, Bottiglierie stated there is certainly also a freedge, or absolutely free local community fridge, situated instantly following to the pantry. It has a variety of food items goods for people today to end by and grab if they are not able to wait for the next Thursday the pantry opens. 

The freedge is open up 3 to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. People today can also donate their meals to the freedge if they really don’t want/want it and it has not expired.

Freedges are positioned throughout the world, and there are a few destinations in Maine. To come across the 1 closest to you, click right here. 

There is also a soup kitchen open up quite a few days a week in the Winslow Congregational Church up coming door, known as the Stone Soup Cafe. It is open 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

To donate to the Winslow Local community Cupboard, simply click right here.