The Norfolk Food Pantry Is Running Low on Supplies

According to Lynn Deasy, one of the volunteers who manages the Norfolk Food Pantry, more than 40 million Americans live in households that don’t have the resources to buy good, nutritious food. Even in Norfolk, 20 to 30 percent of the children at Botelle Elementary School qualify for the subsidized lunch program. 

The summer is always a difficult time for food pantries. During the winter, and especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas season, people are more sensitive to the needs of others and often give generously, but the need for food is year-round. Deasy says that donations usually begin to fall off in the spring. In fact, though, the need is even greater during the summer, since kids are not in school and so don’t get that one nutritious meal a day.

Right now, the supplies at the Norfolk Food Pantry are running very low, and donations are badly needed. The pantry stocks only nonperishable goods, such as pasta, tuna fish, peanut butter, jams, condiments, and canned fruit, vegetables and soup. Donations can be left at the church, but there are also drop-off boxes around town: at Town Hall, the Berkshire Country Store, the Norfolk Library, and the Iron Mountain Bank. 

There is also a box at Immaculate Conception Church, and the Church of the Transfiguration is conducting a food drive for the pantry this summer, with the ambitious goal of raising “a ton of food.” 

Although it is physically located in the Church of Christ Congregational, on the village green, the Norfolk Food Pantry is a town-sponsored program. The pantry is in the back foyer of the church and is open Tuesday to Friday during office hours, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., almost all day Sunday, and whenever the church is open for activities. There are also $50 Stop & Shop cards available from Pastor Erick Olsen.

Photo, top, by Bruce Frisch: the Norfolk Food Pantry, which is open to anyone in need, welcomes food and cash donations from the Norfolk community.