SHARE scrambles to help those hit by economy
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Diane Claveau, left, Ray Steimel, right, and other volunteers pack 121 boxes with food Tuesday, November 24, 2009, at the SHARE offices in Milford. SHARE volunteers have packaged more than 275 food baskets that will feed more than 1,350 people this Thanksgiving in the Milford area.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom SHARE volunteers have packed more than 275 food baskets that will feed more than 1,350 people this Thanksgiving in the Milford area.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Volunteers pack boxes with food Tuesday at the SHARE offices in Milford. SHARE volunteers have packaged more than 275 food baskets that will feed more than 1,350 people this Thanksgiving in the Milford area.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Bags of potatoes, fruit and squash wait to be picked up by clients of SHARE.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom A dry erase board gives SHARE volunteers instructions on how much food to pack for each family size as more than 275 Thanksgiving food baskets are prepared for clients in the Milford area.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Volunteers pack 121 boxes with food Tuesday, November 24, 2009, at the SHARE offices in Milford. SHARE volunteers have prepared more than 275 food baskets that will feed more than 1,350 people this Thanksgiving in the Milford area.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Kathi Beane checks boxes of donated groceries before clients come in to pick up food Tuesday, November 24, 2009, at the SHARE offices in Milford. SHARE volunteers have packaged more than 275 food baskets that will feed more than 1,350 people this Thanksgiving in the Milford area.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom Diane Claveau, left, Ray Steimel, right, and other volunteers pack 121 boxes with food Tuesday, November 24, 2009, at the SHARE offices in Milford. SHARE volunteers have packaged more than 275 food baskets that will feed more than 1,350 people this Thanksgiving in the Milford area.
MILFORD – During this season of too much food, it’s hard to imagine people who don’t have enough.
But the economy is still dismal, and more and more people are seeking food and other household supplies from SHARE, the charity organization that serves Milford, Amherst, Mont Vernon and Brookline.
“There has been a huge increase in the number of people coming in,” said Carolyn Momenee, co-director of SHARE’s Food Pantry.
More than 1,100 families sought food at SHARE through the first 10 months of this year, she said.
During the same months of 2008 there were 812.
One new client came in Friday, a former employee of Hitchiner Manufacturing, Momenee said, who was recently laid off and said 24 other people recently were laid off there as well.
SHARE has accommodated the influx of new clients by adding 10 more appointments a week. During the half hour appointments, one or two volunteer food pantry clerks help people gather the items they need.
Most of the clients get food stamps, Momenee said, “but that’s not enough.”
Clients can come in once a month and usually get a week’s worth of food – dairy products, canned vegetables, meats and sometimes donated fresh vegetables, that come from local sources, as well as from the New Hampshire Food Bank and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
With so much need, SHARE is fortunate the community, including business and churches, is very supportive, Momenee said.
“Curves just dropped off turkeys,” she said on Friday afternoon. “This is truly a community that reaches out and helps.”
The food pantry can use more volunteers and more donations, especially donations of items that food stamps doesn’t pay for, including laundry detergent, shampoo and household cleaning products. “We always need large size diapers,” Momenee said.
On Monday, volunteers filled boxes of nonperishable Thanksgiving food – including canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, pie mixes, bags of potatoes – at the SHARE headquarters on Columbus Drive. Later in the week frozen turkeys are added.
On Monday, Nov. 30 volunteers can “just show up” at SHARE’s Columbus Avenue building, off Elm Street (the old Knights of Columbus building), and help sort food collected by Scouts this month, Momenee said.
To contact SHARE go to share. outreach@hotmail.com or call 673-9898.
Food pantry hours are 9 a.m.-noon Mon day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and Wednesdays from 1:30-4 p.m., by appointment.
SHARE also has a clothing barn at St. Patrick Church at 34 Amherst St. in Milford that’s open Wednesdays from 3-5 p.m. and Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-noon. Call 673-3660 for more information.
Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100 ext. 21 of kcleveland@cabinet.com.
