‘Every little bit helps’
Food bank accepting canned goods for upcoming spring drive
LOWELL >> Something about the holiday season makes Greater Lowell especially generous. From November through January, the Merrimack Valley Food Bank received about 120,000 pounds of food.
That “boatload” has carried the food bank through much of the spring, Executive Director Debbie Callery said, but that Thanksgiving and Christmas supply is now running low.
That’s why they’re organizing their annual Spring Pantry Raid food drive on Saturday, April 29, presented by state Rep. Vanna Howard, D-lowell, and the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce.
The food bank is primarily accepting supermarket gift cards and shelf-stable goods — foods that don’t expire and don’t need to be refrigerated — such as rice, pasta, tomato sauce, cereal, macaroni and cheese, soups, condiments and canned food, Callery said.
“We get the majority of our food from the state and from the federal government, so we still have plenty of that food, but this is bonus stuff,” Callery said. “We wouldn’t get Chef Boyardee ravioli from the state or the (U.S. Department of Agriculture). We’re getting other stuff, but not that.”
For the last 20 years, the MVFB has encouraged area residents to gift a bag of groceries or unused goods during the spring, Callery said. The food bank serves 70,000 people every month, from Amesbury to Woburn and across the region, allocating an estimated 4 million pounds annually to organizations by the caseload.
Of the four food banks in the state, the Merrimack Valley is home to the smallest, Callery said, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make an impact.
“I would call us the supermarket to the hunger relief program,” Callery said. “We serve in 32 cities and towns, nearly 100 programs that are considered emergency feeding programs,
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