Thanks to the Comstock Community Center renovation project, construction is still ongoing at the building that houses several of the social and recreational services provided by the town. While some of the town departments have been able to relocate to a different wing within Comstock–like Parks & Recreation–or even have remained open during construction–like the Senior Center and Wilton Social Services–the Wilton Food Pantry had to temporarily close for about a month.
That meant that families and individuals who typically receive help from the town couldn’t do their weekly shopping at the food pantry during that month. But that hasn’t stopped social services from trying to provide what those families needed while the pantry was temporarily closed until yesterday, June 8, when it was able to reopen in a modified way.
“We’ve provided Stop & Shop cards to our families to help cover what we estimated was the cost of the food that we’d provide during that time,” explains Lauren Hughes, the social worker in charge of the Wilton Food Pantry, who added that the clients were informed about the temporary shutdown about a week before the closure.
Thankfully, says Cathy Pierce, director of Wilton Social Services, the department had enough funds on hand from previous donations to purchase those Stop & Shop cards.
“Fortunately people in town have been very generous and so we had money available and I think people were okay, and they’ll start coming back this week.
In addition to taking cards, clients were also urged to fill their carts and take as much as possible before the closure. That, says Hughes, helped make things easier for her department as well during construction. “We encouraged them to take whatever they wanted so it wouldn’t have to be moved around.”
Now, How to Restock the Shelves?
But now that the food pantry has reopened with mostly empty shelves, what are the plans to restock everything? Thankfully, says Hughes, they can start slowly. “We have funds set aside, in the budget and with donations we get specifically for the pantry. I ordered almost $1,000 of food from Peapod that will be delivered today [Monday].”
Unfortunately, there’s still a limit to how much can be restocked for the time being. Hughes and her volunteer staffers can only access two of the four refrigerators right now, so they’re not restocking any of the fresh food they typically get from the Lower Fairfield Food Pantry until next week. In addition, a group of students from Wilton High School that typically sources food from Panera Bread is itself in transition, as seniors prepare to graduate and hand the effort over to underclassmen.
“Everything is still in flux, is the bottom line,” Hughes says.
But, she says, the food pantry is hesitant to ask for donations of food or paper good supplies–yet. What’s most helpful are monetary donations and Stop & Shop cards.
“We don’t want to flood the pantry with donations that we then don’t have a place to put. Until it’s really cleaned up, until we have complete access, I’m hesitant to ask for donations. Stop & Shop cards are always more than welcome. We’ve depleted all of our cards, and any denomination is more than welcome. That would be great,” Hughes says.
In the coming weeks there will be a more concerted effort to fill the shelves.
“Kiwanis is doing a large drive on the weekend of June 26 at Stop & Shop and Village Market. What would really be most helpful is [for Wiltonians to] shop that weekend and give donations to the Kiwanis. What would be most helpful is if they were to shop then and just give their donations to Kiwanis because Kiwanis will have a list of what we need,” she says.
The other thing that’s important to keep in mind is how best to donate and make sure that the privacy of the clients isn’t violated.
“If anyone wants to donate, the first thing to do is call us. It’s best to do everything through the office upstairs, rather than come to the pantry,” Hughes explains.
Her co-worker, Pierce, adds that summer is a traditionally more difficult to keep shelves stocked as people are away or are less likely to remember the pantry, and she hopes people will continue to think to help then.
For more information, contact the Wilton Social Services office at 203.834.6238.