Carol Brazier prepares bread and deli products for distribution at the Waldoboro Food Pantry on Tuesday, Oct. 21. Brazier has volunteered at the pantry for over eight years. (Ali Juell photo)
Monday mornings are for preparation at the Waldoboro Food Pantry and Monday, Oct. 19 is no different.
Starting bright and early at 8:30 a.m., volunteers start to count how many packages of rice, boxes of pasta, and cans of applesauce belong in each grocery bag.
The counting is a crucial part of getting a fair share of food to as many families as possible every first and third Tuesday of the month. The Waldoboro Food Pantry has seen 159 to 203 households at each distribution this year, making it one of Lincoln County’s largest.
Janet Lee, the pantry’s manager of operations, started volunteering in 2020 after retiring from her 35-year career in health care.
“I found myself jumping right in,” she said.
Because of space constraints, she said the Waldoboro Food Pantry is the only pantry in Lincoln County that does a drive-thru instead of a shopping distribution. That means volunteers have to prepare bags of food in advance for pantry visitors.
Lynn Lackoff has gotten good at counting in her four years as a volunteer. She said she joined the pantry for some socialization during the pandemic and never left.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” Lackoff said, calling volunteering at the pantry “busy but amazing.”
After all of the canned and dry goods are doled out, the control room’s floor is covered with grocery bags as far as the eye can see.
When asked what distribution days look like, all the volunteers say the same thing with sly smiles: “You’ll see tomorrow.”
Tuesdays always start with picking up produce donations, unloading the boxes of vegetables and fruits, and getting delivery orders out. An assembly line of volunteers load produce into grocery bags in a final course of preparation.
Before cars pull up to the pantry, everyone sneaks a few minutes to enjoy homemade cinnamon buns brought in by Pam Edwards, who has volunteered since 2017. Over the years and the pantry’s growth, she said it feels good to help the community through food assistance.
“We know the people who get (assistance) are the people who really need it,” Edwards said.
The methodical chaos starts at 11 a.m. Volunteers stay busy preparing delivery orders, greeting incoming pantry visitors, handing off grocery bags, and wheeling wagons to cars.
Among the volunteers on wagon-wielding duty is Emmett Tate. Tate started at the pantry about a year ago after Edwards, his neighbor, encouraged him to join.
With all of the manpower and organization required for successful distribution, he said it took some time to plug into the system, but people quickly depend on one another to keep the pantry running.
“After two or three weeks, you sort of fall into the pattern,” Tate said.
Pantry visitors are greeted by the intake team before their orders are radioed up to Cathy Hogan, who directs the wagon crew and tells them what to grab.
Tate and several other volunteers wheel back and forth from the control room to pantry visitors’ cars throughout the day. Despite the hard work, Tate said he doesn’t mind being on his feet for a good cause.
“On the average day I’m relatively tired, but you feel like you’ve done something,” Tate said. “Families leave here with food for the week, and that’s a very nice feeling. Makes up for the physical tiring.”
Among distribution day’s tasks, volunteers have no trouble filling the lulls. There’s no shortage of affectionately ribbing each other or breaking out into a chorus of song when the group isn’t busy getting food into people’s hands.
“It’s an interesting group,” said Tom Morrison, who came to the pantry to drop off a ham and left a newly minted volunteer three years ago. “That’s not why you do it, but it does make it pleasant with all the characters … It’s really the enjoyment of (helping out) but then the pleasure of being around some like-minded people.”
Not only do volunteers keep one another entertained, Tate said the group is focused on helping pantry visitors and one another whenever possible
“Every so often (another volunteer) will have a tough day, and you jump in to help them,” Tate said. “You don’t mind doing more than your share.”
All of the group’s collective efforts lead up to the moment when every grocery bag is gone. That moment, when all of the week’s food has made it to families, is the most gratifying part of distribution day, Lackoff said.
Several volunteers said the pantry wouldn’t run every other week without Lee. On top of putting in extra hours to get food donations and train volunteers, she arrives every Tuesday with a homemade lunch for the group.
“(She) is really the kingpin of all of this and works an amazing amount,” Morrison said. “She easily outworks any of us here.”
As the person overseeing operations and directing volunteers through distribution, she said her job is easy because of the people she leads.
“They want to do whatever they can do to help,” Lee said. “That’s why I’m so fortunate and so lucky to have such good, dedicated volunteers.”
Looking toward the future, she said the pantry is searching for a new, bigger building in Waldoboro with plenty of room for parking.
“We’re hoping to get a building large enough for a kitchen, which would give us more access to supplying more food,” she said.
More space would also mean Waldoboro pantry visitors could shop for their groceries instead of the current bagged distribution, according to Lee.
People can help the pantry out by organizing or participating in fundraising opportunities, she said, or even sharing the food pantry’s mission through word of mouth.
To join the band of volunteers at the Waldoboro Food Pantry, Lee said people have to have the desire to help others.
“If there’s anybody out there that wants to contribute their skill and their knowledge and their hands, that’s what we’re looking for,” she said.
The Waldoboro Food Pantry is located at 124 Friendship Street in Waldoboro. To learn more about volunteering at the Waldoboro pantry, go to waldoborofoodpantry.org or email waldoborofoodpantry@outlook.com. To learn more about other food pantries in Lincoln County, go to page 8.
(“Voluntary View” is a monthly series highlighting community volunteer efforts across Lincoln County. Have a volunteer organization you would like to see featured? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Voluntary View” and include the group’s name, description, and contact information.)
