Elks community Thanksgiving food drive enters 10th year

WEST HAVEN — A longstanding community Thanksgiving food drive has reached its 10th anniversary, and officials say it still serves a critical need.

“Food drives account for 20 percent of the food we get, so that helps us to supplement us by giving us a greater variety of food,” said West Haven Emergency Assistance Task Force Executive Director Rose Majestic. “It helps to supplement us through the winter when the donations drop.”

The 11th annual food drive will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 6. Food items can be dropped off at the Elks Lodge at 265 Main St. The drive is intended to provide food staples for Thanksgiving, such as stuffing, instant potatoes and canned vegetables, but all food pantry staples will be accepted, according to food drive founder Donna Rzasa. In addition to food, checks can be made out to WHEAT at 674 Washington Ave. in West Haven or donations can be made online at givegreater.org.

The food drive first began in 2012 Rzasa launched the initiative to collect food for donation in her front yard.

“I had an injury at work and was home for the summer,” she said.

As Rzasa later became the exalted ruler of the West Haven Elks, she eventually merged the organization’s local resources with the food drive four years ago. She said that the partnership has expanded the capacity from three volunteers to a larger team.

“We’re getting better and better with this,” she said.

For the last few years, during the earliest years of the pandemic, Rzasa said the need has grown. In 2020, the drive raised $2,000 in monetary donations and 7,000 pounds of food. The next year, the drive raised $2,100 and 3,000 pounds of food. Rzasa said the 2021 total translated to about 6,160 Thanksgiving meals.

“Quite frankly, I sit back on Thanksgiving and feel better that I helped somebody else have a Thanksgiving meal,” she said.

Rzasa said the enthusiasm for giving back can also be infectious.

“We had someone who receives food assistance from WHEAT who went down to the grocery store and came back with a can of vegetables to give back to WHEAT,” she said. “I found that to be very touching. It was the most prized possession on the table that day.”

After 17 years in the role, this will be Majestic’s final Thanksgiving food drive as she prepares for retirement.

“When I came here we were serving maybe about 15 families a day, and now we’re up to 35 to 40. WHEAT has grown in terms of the amount of food we’ve given out and the times we’ve given out,” Majestic said.

Majestic said she has also witnessed the demographics of who WHEAT serves start to include more seniors and single people.

“Rose has been an absolute pleasure to work with. She gets just as excited about this as I do,” Rzasa said. “She’s a peach of a woman.”