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The Sudbury Community Food Pantry celebrated its 26th anniversary in 2016. The 93 volunteers, contributed 6,351 hours serving our clients. Their commitment and dedication has enabled us to aid people who are struggling financially by providing them with food and personal care items that promote healthy living and doing so in a manner that preserves their dignity. I have heard on numerous occasions from my peers in other towns that clients of their pantry have described the Sudbury food pantry as a place with a friendly and welcoming environment.

From coordinating the volunteers, monitoring the pantry answering machine, stocking the shelves, picking from: donation boxes at Sudbury Farms and Shaw’s, purchases from The Greater Boston Food Bank and delivering them to the pantry, distributing the food, registering the clients, stocking the shelves, processing the food collected in the various food drives and deliveries from the GBFB, our volunteers have enabled The Sudbury Community Food Pantry to become an exceptional organization.

2016 was not a year without its challenges. We scrambled to get enough turkeys for Thanksgiving as the after effects of 20 million turkeys being euthanized because of the avian flu in 2015, meant there were fewer eggs laid. We were however able to obtain 112 Turkeys and 60 large roasting chickens.

There are definite signs of the economy improving and stabilizing as the number of clients we served was down 13.9% from 2014 and up 2.2% from 2015 and client visits down 11.8% from 2014 and down 1% from 2015. We added 370 new clients in 2016 while 351 clients no longer needed our services. This is consistent with the drop in unemployment numbers and the jobs report.

You can download the complete report here: The Sudbury Community Food Pantry 2016 A Year In Review

Natalie Turkington, a freshman at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, delivered approximately 750 pounds of food to the Sudbury Community Food Pantry during the holiday season.

Natalie, partnered with sophomore Madison Walsh who organized a similar collection last year, as well as the Curtis Angels, a community service group at the Curtis Middle School. Turkington and Walsh held collection drives within their neighborhoods. The Curtis Angels engaged the middle school community and social media was used to reach the broader Sudbury community.

Natalie is an ambassador with Project 351. Project 351 is a nonprofit organization that unites one eighth-grade service ambassador from every city and town in Massachusetts for a year of community service and leadership training. She was chosen to represent Sudbury in January 2016, and since that time has organized many community service projects including the food drive.

“I knew the Food Pantry had numerous supporters including the elementary schools, but when I learned how many people in our own town and surrounding towns needed food, I knew I had to step in. With the guidance of Project 351, and the help of Madison and the Curtis Angels, I was able to make a huge impact in helping the many families in need through the holidays,” said Turkington.

Turkington, along with Walsh, was chosen to be a member of the Alumni Leadership Team for Project 351, where she will help lead a new group of ambassadors through their year of service.

The pantry’s sole purpose is to help any family, or individual in need, and no one has ever been turned away from the Food Pantry. Because coming to strangers and asking for food can be difficult, an effort is made to put all clients at ease while they wait to be served.

The food pantry is an all-volunteer organization. As a member of the Greater Boston Food Bank, and its purchasing power, the Sudbury Food Pantry is able to purchase food and personal care items well below wholesale prices. The Sudbury Food Pantry purchases food from local supermarkets when needed and is a distribution site for the USDA food assistance program and the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program.

The pantry is open from noon to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sudbury residents may come twice a month and non-Sudbury once a month. It is located in the basement of Our Lady of Fatima Church, at the intersection of Union Avenue and Concord Road. The mailing address is Sudbury Community Food Pantry, P.O. Box 751, Sudbury, MA 01776.

Read The Article at The Sudbury Town Crier