The Franklin County Community Meals Program

P.O. Box 172 ~ Greenfield, MA 01302 ~ (413) 772-1033

April 11, 2008

An Open Letter to the Community,

As I write this, our Food-a-Thon total is nearly $28,000, and seven area pantries have loaded their shelves with hearty, nutritious food, and I just don’t know where to begin to thank this wonderful community for making the event such a tremendous success each year!

Way back in December, Rick Kwiatkowski, Carol Courville, and Jay Deane began plotting how to make this year’s Food-a-Thon the most successful one ever.  They talked with Peter Gerry from Pete’s Tire Barns, who wanted to do even more than he has in the past to bring in new support for the event, and then match that support.  Joe Goody at Hannaford suggested that, in addition to all the regular food Hannaford collects each year, they might ask shoppers to donate $10 to fill bags with specific, much-needed food items.  Santa Lajoie from Wal Mart made plans to sell hot dogs to raise money on Food-a-Thon day, and also committed Wal Mart to making a very generous corporate gift. The Athol Memorial Hospital offered to staff a collection point again; Time Warner Cable handled all the logistics of cameras and wiring, and promoted the Food-a-Thon heavily on their stations; the Athol Daily News and Recorder’s Quabbin Voice gave the event great press coverage; Salvadore Auto asked all their customers to donate food; the House of Wax held a Saturday car wash benefit; AOTV volunteers filmed the entire day; over 100 Food-a-Thon volunteers were fed with pizza from Orange House of Pizza and chowder from Bob Fisher (made using the Kelly’s Brunch Box kitchen), and coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts; S & S Appliance donated a wide screen TV for the day.  And, as always, WJDF gave up an entire day of lucrative programming and instead asked people to come over and talk about the growing need families have for food right here in our very own community.

The incredible success of the Food-a-Thon each year comes from all of them and all of you, who often have no real stake in feeding hungry folks in our community, except that you understand what it means to be part of a community.

Each year, I find myself in tears as I drive home from the Food-a-Thon … maybe it’s just from fatigue, but I prefer to think that its from an overwhelming sense of the good we have seen in people throughout the day. Clearly, the Orange/Athol community goes to great lengths to
take care of its own, and all of us at the Orange Food Pantry and Loaves and Fishes Meal-site are grateful to be your neighbors. 

Sincerely,

Amy Clarke
Executive Director  
Franklin County Community Meals Program


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