Firefighters Plan Holiday Food Drive

By Andrew Gorosko

As Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day approach, residents are preparing for the festivities, acquiring the food items that they will use in celebrating the three major holidays.

Members of the town’s five volunteer fire companies are asking the public to remember that some residents are not facing a rosy holiday season because they lack some of the basic foodstuffs typically used in holiday celebrations.

To fill that void, the five fire companies — Newtown Hook & Ladder, Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, Sandy Hook, and Botsford — plan to join forces on Saturday, November 20, near the town’s two supermarkets to collect residents’ donations of nonperishable food items and household goods for the needy.

Volunteer firefighters will be stationed with their fire trucks that day from 9 am to 3 pm near the Big Y supermarket at Newtown Shopping Village at 6 Queen Street, and near the Super Stop & Shop supermarket at Sand Hill Plaza at 228 South Main Street, said Karin Halstead, a Sandy Hook firefighter, who is coordinating the food drive.

The items that are collected by firefighters will be donated to Faith Food Pantry in Sandy Hook Center. The food is kept at St John’s Episcopal Church. The pantry is a joint effort by local churches to distribute food to the needy. 

Besides donations of nonperishable food items, the collection effort is seeking donations of health and beauty items, such as those sold in supermarkets, as well as donations of money, said Ms Halstead.

Last year, the collection project resulted in firefighters delivering about 150 large boxes of donated items to Faith Food Pantry, Ms Halstead said. The public has been very generous in its donations in the past, she said.

Ms Halstead said she expects that several dozen volunteer firefighters to participate in the food drive.

The items that are collected in the food drive will be distributed during the coming weeks to make the holiday season brighter for the needy, she said.