Volunteers Responsible

For Successful Food Drive

To the Editor:

The Annual Postal Food Drive happens every year on Mother’s Day weekend, and every year we worry about its success. It is the major source of food donation to the Newtown Salvation Army Food Pantry, which is housed in our office at 3 Main Street. In spite of high food prices and economic woes, donations were strong once again. All food collected in Newtown stays in Newtown to benefit our residents in need.

Volunteer drivers pick up food left by mailboxes in the morning to lessen the load for postal carriers later in the day, so please remember to put your food out in the morning next year. As the drivers arrive with loaded cars, workers are ready with shopping cards (thank you, Big Y) to move the food into the sorting area. Expired food is thrown out (please check the dates on your donated items), and the remaining food is shelved or sorted into bins for future use.

We are thankful that so many of our volunteers return each year to help. They always find ways to tweak the system and make it more efficient. Many families (Kraushaar, Dholakia, Makayee, Zimmer, Odams, Thomas, Andrews, Aversano, and Zheng) spent most of the day with us as did Ed Rees, Steve Benfeldt, Betty Lou Lincoln, Jan Brookes, Chris Lyddy, and Sarah Hemingway.

We are grateful to all who helped with driving, sorting, or both. Rich Crowther and Dave Sabia (and family) are postal workers who coordinated our efforts. We also thank the mail carriers who picked up food as they delivered mail. As in the past, both My Place and Carminuccio’s provided pizzas to reenergize our workers.

Postal Food Drive day is a great opportunity for community service. We only had a handful of high school volunteers and hope to see that increase next year. We need a lot of strong, young bodies to help us, so mark your calendars for the day before Mother’s Day in 2009.

We hope to see you next year,

Ann Piccini

Joanne Klopfenstein

Newtown Department of Social Services

3 Main Street, Newtown                                                   May 21, 2008