Vets step up to stock Dot food pantry
Only two weeks into the coronavirus lockdown, Elizabeth Caisey faced an impossible choice: grocery shop for her family or fill the food pantry her Boston neighbors had come to depend on, now more than ever.
Caisey remembers looking at the meager supplies left in Dorchester’s Community Corner food pantry and worrying what the single mothers, recently homeless, and laid-off workers in Codman Square would eat.
“We had two bags left of food,” Caisey said.
The pandemic and ensuing lockdown drove demand for the food pantry’s meal kits up sevenfold, and Caisey feared they’d be wiped out. She put out the call to the community for help. Massachusetts Fallen Heroes answered.
Massachusetts Fallen Heroes was founded in 2010 by local veterans, Gold Star families, police officers and firefighters to honor service members who paid the ultimate price for freedom.
“We came across the food pantry and said, ‘we’d like to help and do our part,'” said
Mass Fallen Heroes board member Mike Brown. “We’re conditioned to know that many ants make for light work. There are people in need and we can help, so we’re going to.”
The group immediately donated cash to the center and drove up donations from both individuals and businesses. They raised more than $3,500, enough to support that week’s food supplies, as well as weeks to come.
“We got a lot of food from the community when we were deployed,” said Milton Ramos, who served two tours in Iraq and one in
Afghanistan. “This is a way of paying it back.”
But it costs about $800 to put together 50 meal kits — a week’s worth of food for the poor. Caisey said they’ve also dropped off supplies to about 80 seniors in the area who are too afraid to leave their homes for dry goods.
The pantry, which opened in October 2018, depends on grassroots support. Meal kits consist of simple items: cereal, pasta, canned vegetables, toilet paper and juice. It’s a Monday through Friday operation, and Caisey said they’ve seen daily demand during the pandemic. A week hasn’t gone by without them giving out all 50 bags of meals.
Mass Fallen Heroes executive director Dan Magoon said military members have been able to be both empathetic and strategic in the face of the pandemic.
“Unfortunately for a lot of us, we’ve been through some tough times and can relate to what it’s like to not have a box of MREs, or water, or fuel, or ammo,” Magoon said. “That’s all we’re trying to do, we’re trying to take what we’ve been through and what we’ve built, and pay it forward.”
To donate to the food pantry at the Community Corner, go to tcbinc.org, click on “donate” and note “food pantry.” The Community Corner can be reached by email at communitycorner282@outlook.com or via its Facebook page.