Food pantry gets new friends and a face lift

MILFORD — The ecumenical food pantry located in the basement of the Church of the Good Shepherd has been in the news a lot lately for various reasons, most often in connection with the ever increasing demand for its assistance and concurrently dwindling sources of food and other products which it distributes each Friday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to those in need from our community. This time those involved with the food pantry want to share some good news and thank a few hard working people for giving the food pantry a wonderful and much needed face lift. Although the Good Shepherd Church’s basement has been home to the ecumenical food pantry for many years, costs and time constraints have prevented us from maintaining it as much as we would have liked. Thanks to some very good willed people a dramatic change has occurred. The food pantry now has some great new shelving and cabinets! The Kiwanis Club of Delaware Valley decided to take on our food pantry as one of their projects. As a result, we now have four, very big, sturdy shelves that will hold a lot of our food supplies. Al Peselnick, of the Kiwanis Club, commented that each shelf weighed 75 pounds and that the only way to get them to the food pantry was in pieces! Al, along with two Delaware Valley students, Thomas Garibay and Jerry Stadler, had to transport the pieces and then assemble them in the food pantry. Right about the same time the Kiwanis members were building shelves, Benny and Marie Marasa stopped by the office to offer their services to the food pantry. Benny, who has been collecting building materials for some time now, had enough wood to build two big cabinets with shelves for our food pantry. His measurements were impeccable — they were a perfect fit for the space intended. Not only will they increase storage space still further, but they will also allow for counter space as well. Additional counter space was desperately needed. These multi-functional cabinets will serve the food pantry very well. Thanks to the time and effort invested by our new friends and supporters, food will no longer be stored on pallets on the floor of the basement of the food pantry. John Yanick, a parishioner of Good Shepherd Church, who also has been working very hard to keep the food pantry organized and looking good, is delighted with the results. He is now busy re-arranging everything on the new shelves. For more information on the ecumenical food pantry, visit the website of the Church of the Good Shepherd and St. John the Evangelist at www.goodshepherdmilford.org or call 570-296-8123 week days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.