Bob started volunteering with the Thetford Food Shelf in 2018. “It’s something I can do to help my community,” he says. “It doesn’t take any special skills, really, just the commitment to showing up.”
The town hall-based service began in 1984 as the emergency food shelf. In 2004, it had outgrown the two shelves upstairs in the town’s vault and was moved down into the basement by then-clerk Roberta Howard. Today the shelf has expanded to a portion of the basement and is a certified 501c3, thanks to the diligent efforts of director Mary Allen. The food shelf serves an average of 53 households from Thetford and the surrounding towns of Fairlee, West Fairlee, Strafford, and Vershire each month during the four hours a week (Tuesday/Thursday, 10-noon) that its doors are open.
Mary, Bob, and the other volunteers, help their customers find what they need among the stacks of dry goods and give out refrigerated and frozen food. Fresh produce delivered weekly from Willing Hands rounds out the available choices and makes up a critical element of their groceries.
Cynthia, another local volunteer, started working at the food shelf after retiring in October. “I live just a couple miles away and thought this would be a good opportunity to put my time to use, and it’s a great way to meet more neighbors.”
She has good company, Mary says. “People come here for more than just food. They’re here to connect.”
The community, she notes, has been responsive to increased food uncertainty. When SNAP benefits were threatened last fall, Thetford community members stepped up with extra donations and food deliveries, lining up food sacks all the way down the stairs. Another critical source of support across the years has been the weekly deliveries from Willing Hands.
“To put it simply, without Willing Hands, our customers would not have access to fresh produce and local bread. It would be impossible for us to supply them and we would have a much sparser food shelf. We so appreciate our driver, Tim, and Gabe, who sources food, and everyone else at Willing Hands and everything they have done for our food shelf.”