The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Price Rite joins agencies to feed local families
‘Feeding Minds and Bodies’ will aid close to 4,000
TORRINGTON — A nationally recognized food donation event was held for the first time in the city Tuesday, providing food for about 800 families with the support of several corporate sponsors.
Price Rite teamed up with the nonprofit Feed the Children organization and the United Way of Northwest Connecticut to provide food to families with children who live in the region. The event is called “Feeding Minds and Bodies.”
“We went to every program and agency (in the region),” said Owen Quinn, executive director of the United Way. The visits helped the organization determine who was eligible for the donations, he noted. The food will feed about 4,000 individual family members, Quinn said.
The eligible recipients were able to pick up donated food and essentials using a voucher that was provided by the participating agencies. The donation center was located in front of the Price Rite store at 695 Main St.
The pickup process was simple and quick. Each vehicle entered a designated lane where volunteers loaded 25-pound boxes of food, a bag of fresh produce and 15-pound boxes of personal care items. Bottled water also included.
One recipient, who asked not to be named, said the donations were welcome. “This is everything. We are a working family and we are going through tough times. This goes really far,” she said.
Children’s books were also donated at the event. “Books feed the mind,” said Bill Britten, the director of human resources for Price Rite. He said the program will be held this year at seven other locations in the northeast, where the company’s stores are located.
“It’s going fantastic,” said Price Rite President Jim Dorey. “It is so efficient, we got most of the families through in good time.”
The grocery store has been involved with the annual food
donation program for five years, Dorrey noted. “We grew through the partnership with Feed the Children,” which began in 2015.
Volunteers arrived at 7 a.m., Dorey said, to move boxes to their designated locations. Employees of O&G Industries in Torrington volunteered to set up of the distribution lanes, he said. “They brought in cranes to lift the food pallets into place,” he said.
“We filled 800 bags from Price Rite,” said Stephanie Synott of Torrington. She works for Lowes, which she said supports their employees’ volunteerism.
The bags were filled with fresh vegetables, oatmeal and macaroni and cheese,
Synott said. “It was an assembly line. Different people put stuff in different bags. It was kind of like trick-ortreating.”
“This represents what the region does well. There are a lot of volunteers,” said Michael Rooke, president of the Northwest Connecticut Community College, who was also a volunteer. “It is also in the spirit of September 11,” he added.
Rooke is also a board member of the United Way. “It’s important to give back. Community is our middle name,” he added, referring to the college’s moniker.
Employees of Friends of Service to Humanity, or FISH, said the donations will feed about 130 families who utilize the organization’s food pantry. “It’s a tremendous effort by the community and Price Rite,” said Executive Director Deirdre DiCara.
“It went well with all the families we had here,” said Milly Delvalle, a human resources staff member who oversees the Torrington Price Rite store. She said she expected the donation site to get busy as the event neared it’s closing time of 12:30 p.m.
Devalle noted that the local store is the second oldest in the state. It was built about 20 years ago, she said.