New London food pantry providing increased assistance

By Jim Paul

Volunteers at the Washington Center Community Cupboard in New London are keeping busy with an increased demand for food assistance.

Originally started by the city of New London, operation was taken over by the nonprofit St. Joseph Residence in 2019.

St. Joseph Residence operates an assisted living facility in the same location.

According to volunteer Rita Thiel, the need for food assistance is currently high. Thiel, along with approximately 20 other volunteers, keep the pantry up and running.

“Last week we had 91 families here, that’s like 275 people in one week and they are eligible to come every other week,” Thiel said. “We don’t usually get that many. I would say a typical month is 120 families.”

Thiel said due to inflation and the increase in grocery prices, people are coming to the pantry that volunteers have never seen before.

Demand is also high during the summer months when donations drop off and children are out of school not getting hot lunches.

Pantry seeks more donations

Thiel said they are facing challenges keeping the pantry stocked.

The government is not putting money into The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) like they were during the pandemic so the pantry is relying more on donations of food and money from the community.

For Thanksgiving the Methodist Church provided turkeys, pies and cranberries for families in need.

United Church of Christ is also an active donor to the pantry and many of the volunteers are from UCC.

Schools are big donors. Parkview Elementary school recently collected boxes of cold cereal and Lincoln Elementary recently had a food drive that collected more than 400 items.

Area businesses have been supportive with financial donations.

Currently. New London Utilities is giving away Christmas lights in exchange for donations of food items.

Cuff Farms is planting additional vegetables for distribution at the pantry.

In addition to TEAFAP and food donations, the pantry spends $2,000 a month on food items such as peanut butter, Manwich, Hamburger Helper, hot and cold cereal.

Money and food can be dropped off at the Community Cupboard from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tuesdays and from 8 a.m. until noon Wednesdays. Money can also be mailed to the pantry at 600 W. Washington in New London or dropped off at First State Bank.