Scores of volunteers fill food pantry’s shelves

Tim Roderick, food pantry manager at Bristol Good Neighbors, had his work cut out for him — and he couldn’t be happier.

We’ve gone through 35 boxes,” he said.

Before him were 85 more, filled with jars, cans, boxes and packages of non-perishable food items collected on Sunday, when members of the Bristol Rotary Club, volunteer firefighters and their families, students from Mt. Hope High School, and other volunteers teamed up to collect food door-to-door in town.

This year’s annual food drive, an event organized by the Bristol Rotary Club and the town’s volunteer fire department, was held on Jan. 29. Volunteers set up a canopy near BankNewport in Gooding Plaza, in preparation of the noon start time of the food drive. There, they placed rows of folding tables, assembled cardboard boxes and labeled each with markers to help the volunteers sort the pasta, canned vegetables, peanut butter, and other non-perishable foods as they came in.

At noon, fire trucks, followed by an entourage of cars, vans and pickup trucks, led the way through many of the town’s neighborhoods, announcing their presence with muted sirens. They made frequent stops, and volunteers ran up to homes to collect the food.

The goal by day’s end was to collect enough food to re-stock the shelves at the Bristol Good Neighbors Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen, bringing in the ingredients necessary to cook hot, healthy meals for the soup kitchen. The volunteers have been doing this food drive for over 20 years.

This is a very serious issue in the community,” said Cidalia Rodrigues, Rotary president and vice president of BankNewport. “It really helps out.”

This year, said Ms. Rodrigues, volunteers distributed plastic bags before the event. One reason, she said, was to give residents advance notice; and two, it would make it convenient to gather the donated food.

This is the first time we passed the bags out beforehand,” said Ms. Rodrigues. “It’s really working well.”

Among the volunteers sorting food at the staging area were town councilors David Barboza and Antonio Teixeira, Sen. David Bates, and schools superintendent Melinda Thies. All watched helplessly as a jar of marinara accidentally rolled off a table.

Clean up, aisle one,” someone called out from another table.

One jar out of many was a small loss.

At this time of year, the shelves get depleted. This helps them stock the shelves and continue to serve the community,” Ms. Rodrigues said.

While volunteers sorted and boxed food items under the tent, others spent the day at the soup kitchen preparing the 10 pounds of pasta and 300 meatballs that would feed volunteers after the cartons were delivered.

About 55 volunteers came for the meatball supper,” said Ann Wiard, executive director of Bristol Good Neighbors. “We made the sauce the day before and had volunteers to make the meatballs.”

After seeing the number of boxes stacked on pallets and shelves in the basement, Ms. Wiard guessed this year’s drive produced the greatest results ever, a guess the food pantry manager shared.

We have a space issue,” Mr. Roderick said, once the cartons were delivered. “Since the economy has gone really bad, people have become more generous. More so this year than ever before.”

On the other hand, Mr. Roderick added, the poor economy has created a greater demand for food. With about 400 food items needed to fill 20 bags, he said the inventory is “constantly in flux.”

Mr. Roderick and volunteers are glad to have the added inventory from the weekend food drive. Before it is distributed to clients, food pantry volunteers will check the freshness dates and condition of each item, making sure all are in good quality for consumption.

This was our biggest food drive ever,” Mr. Roderick said.