Giving reason to give thanks in Westport

Food insecurity is growing, and Westport Food Pantry is as busy as ever

By Ted Hayes
Posted 11/27/24

If the line of cars stretching out from the Westport Grange Monday morning was any indication, hunger is growing in Westport and across the Southcoast.

The cars started arriving at 931 Main Road …

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Giving reason to give thanks in Westport

Food insecurity is growing, and Westport Food Pantry is as busy as ever

Posted

If the line of cars stretching out from the Westport Grange Monday morning was any indication, hunger is growing in Westport and across the Southcoast.

The cars started arriving at 931 Main Road at 8:30 a.m. as the Westport Food Pantry, a non-profit that runs out of the Grange basement, prepared to hand out approximately 220 Thanksgiving baskets for those in need. Last year, when some 200 baskets were given away, the line of cars stretched down Main, behind the Meeting House, and all the way to Hix Bridge Road. This year, there were more.

“It’s sad, it’s really said,” the pantry’s Chris Conway said Friday of the need she and other pantry workers and volunteers see, particularly at this time of year.

Fortunately,” we have so much support. Businesses have been wonderful, our donors are great — there’s a lot of support.”

The baskets include a turkey, roasting pan, all the fixings needed, butternut squash and a pie, and those who picked them up also received their regular food pantry distribution, which is handed out every Monday throughout the year.

Director Cindy Wilson echoed Conway’s praise of the community’s support, saying the weekly distributions and Thanksgiving packages wouldn’t be possible without it. Scores of businesses, farmers and private donors are the pantry’s backbone, and the pantry also works with and is supported by the Greater Boston Food Bank, local students and the New Bedford Hunger Commission/United Way of New Bedford. The help “enables us to continue to expand who we’re able to help and how much we’re able to provide each client.”

It’s been a busy year for the pantry, she said.

Over the past year, the non-profit founded during the pandemic has distributed more than 156,00 pounds — 78 tons — of food to needy Westporters and others from around the Southcoast region. By the numbers, that includes more than 400 families served and specifically, more than 260 children, 470 adults and 310 seniors.

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