Community Corner

Foodshare Receives Sizeable Donation

Stop & Shop donates $95,000 to the nonprofit agency that serves Hartford and Tolland counties.

In the past two to three years, the need for some sort of food assistance for residents of Tolland and Hartford counties has increased by 30 percent.

In some cases, clients for smaller nonprofit agencies that help to distribute food, from fresh fruit and vegetables to non-perishable items, has doubled.

“Our everyday challenge is to get the food donations in and then getting the food out to the programs that are stretched beyond what they were meant to do,” Alicia Flynn, vice president and chief development officer of Foodshare, said recently.

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For this reason, among many others, the Bloomfield-based nonprofit organization, which acts as a warehouse point for about 300  smaller nonprofits that serve local families and individuals in need of sustenance, is grateful for every donation it receives.

Earlier this month, Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. donated $95,000 to Foodshare through its annual Food for Friends program, which ran throughout its 392 stores from the end of October until the beginning of December.

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Mark McGowan, New England division president of Stop & Shop, said in a news release that “2010 was a record year for Food for Friends and we’re unbelievably proud of our customers and associates."

"Our food bank partners are critical in supporting the communities we serve, and providing relief to those in need is of utmost priority to us,” McGowan said.

“In general we are very lucky to have partners like Stop & Shop . . .  Programs like this are invaluable, as are the donations we receive from the public,” Flynn said. “We feel blessed most days because we have partners and that the public has stood by us so strongly over the last few years. Many of the people who are donating are the same people who are struggling themselves.”

Financially, Flynn said that Foodshare is in “pretty good shape.” The challenge is helping the smaller programs that Foodshare supports, and through which the warehouse annually distributes more than 12 million pounds of food.

In 2010, Foodshare, and the smaller agencies it works with provided food for more than 128,000 people, or more than 12 percent of the population of both counties.

Flynn attributed the increase in clients to the economy, saying that many who are asking for help are people who had previously donated to the agencies and are now without a job or source of income.

“They’ve gone through their savings and unemployment and are trying to tread water,” she said.

“It’s a really big challenge, trying to do what we can for families in need, especially with all the budgets questions out there now," Flynn said. "We’re not really funded through state and federal government programs, but many of the families we serve and many of the direct service programs that distribute the food are funded by state and federal programs."


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