For the first time, at this year’s Brookfield Independence Day Parade, volunteers at our food pantry pushed shopping carts along the parade route to collect food donations. To our surprise, we collected more than 2,000 pounds of food. Literally a ton of food! So, you can bet we’ll be pushing shopping carts again during the parade next year.
Shopping carts have a special meaning at our food pantry. Our food-sharing format is similar to a grocery store. Here, visitors can choose the food they need and fill their shopping carts while experiencing a neighborly welcome along the way. We’re building a place where neighbors in need can also find a growing range of support programs. Such as our Resource Hub services advisory center. And our new Families First program, focused on supplying early essentials for cash-strapped parents.
In this, our 10th year, we have entered an unprecedented era of uncertainty for food pantries. As the cost of living reaches an all-time high, food banks, food pantries, and many thousands of our neighbors in need are facing cuts in federal support. Yet even as we anticipate resulting higher pressures on our capacities for food sharing and innovative services expansion, we know this:
Our community has always come through for us.
On behalf of the board of directors of the Share Food Share Love Food Pantry, we thank all who help us connect the four corners of community: our neighbors in need, volunteers, donors, and civic/business leaders. Your continued support is crucial to helping eliminate hunger and the causes of hunger in our area.
John Dumas, Brookfield