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Page 4 <strong>Medway</strong> & <strong>Millis</strong> Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com <strong>October</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
NEIGHBORS<br />
continued from page 1<br />
“We thought <strong>Medway</strong> Village<br />
Food Pantry would be a perfect<br />
community group to align<br />
with,” says Rice. “We’ve lived in<br />
<strong>Medway</strong> pretty much our entire<br />
lives – I have a sixth or seventh<br />
generation niece and nephew.<br />
We chose the Muffin House<br />
(because) they’ve been great in<br />
partnering with us in offering<br />
free coffee for any donations. It<br />
gives the food pantry a lot more<br />
exposure and makes it accessible<br />
for people stopping by who might<br />
not know much about the food<br />
pantry. We were definitely happy<br />
with it last year.”<br />
The <strong>Medway</strong> Village Food<br />
Pantry also partners with the<br />
<strong>Medway</strong> Food Pantry at Nahatan<br />
Circle. That’s open Tuesday and<br />
Thursday mornings. The two<br />
<strong>Medway</strong> food pantries’ memberships<br />
with the Greater Boston<br />
Food Bank offer the advantage<br />
of being able to purchase food<br />
twice a month at a significantly<br />
reduced rate, but members are<br />
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Editor<br />
J.D. O’Gara<br />
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Franklin & <strong>Medway</strong>/<strong>Millis</strong><br />
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expected to seek outside donations<br />
to sustain its operations.<br />
Community events that have<br />
been critical to the food pantry<br />
are the <strong>Medway</strong> Boy Scouts and<br />
Cub Scouts’ Scouting for Food<br />
events, in partnership with Star<br />
Market of <strong>Medway</strong>. The Boy<br />
Scouts conducted their event in<br />
June, and next month, November<br />
3rd, the <strong>Medway</strong> Cub Scouts will<br />
follow suit outside the Shaw’s supermarket.<br />
Although <strong>Medway</strong> residents<br />
comprise a plurality (39%) of the<br />
<strong>Medway</strong> Village Food Pantry’s<br />
clientele, “we serve all residents<br />
of Massachusetts,” says Dietrich.<br />
From July 1, 2017 through June<br />
30, <strong>2018</strong>, this food pantry served<br />
5,169 people from 33 towns<br />
in Massachusetts. After <strong>Medway</strong><br />
(39%), those people hailed<br />
from Milford (20%), Bellingham<br />
(12%) and <strong>Millis</strong> (9%), and the<br />
remaining 20% came from 29<br />
other towns, ranging from Framingham<br />
& Franklin to Upton &<br />
Whitinsville.<br />
Although<br />
several pantry<br />
clients receive<br />
SNAP benefits,<br />
many aren’t eligible.<br />
Dietrich<br />
points to a recent<br />
survey that<br />
says 47% of<br />
people who are<br />
food insecure<br />
do not meet income<br />
guidelines<br />
for SNAP.<br />
“Particularly<br />
in this area of<br />
the country,<br />
where cost of<br />
living is so high,<br />
we have clients<br />
who aren’t eligible<br />
(for SNAP),<br />
but they still<br />
can’t feed their<br />
family of four,<br />
five or six. We have families with<br />
four kids who take care of Mom<br />
and Dad. The last day of each<br />
month, we are mobbed. Their<br />
funds have run out. One of the<br />
things we talk to people about is<br />
how to stretch (the food),” says<br />
Dietrich.<br />
In total, around 15% of the<br />
population the <strong>Medway</strong> Village<br />
Food Pantry sees are seniors;<br />
28% are children, and the rest<br />
are adults aged 18-65.<br />
Dietrich says reasons fueling<br />
the need for the pantry vary.<br />
“Some of it is cost of living,<br />
some job loss, illness in the family,<br />
death of a provider –<br />
housing costs especially, rent<br />
keeps going up and up. We actually<br />
have people come in asking<br />
if we’ve heard of places for<br />
rent. People are getting priced<br />
out of places affordable to live.<br />
We have people who say, ‘I just<br />
got evicted. I stayed in my car last<br />
night,’” she says.<br />
Dietrich laments that at times,<br />
the need is greater than the space<br />
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Team Rice’s Coffee for a Cause will take place this year at The Muffin<br />
House on the morning of <strong>October</strong> 13th. Get a free coffee with a<br />
donation to the <strong>Medway</strong> Village Food Pantry.<br />
will allow.<br />
“It’s a challenge for sure,” she<br />
says. In fact, Dietrich’s son, Liam,<br />
recently designed new shelving<br />
at the pantry for his Eagle Scout<br />
project, in order to allow more efficient<br />
use of the space.<br />
Despite an ever-present need,<br />
says Dietrich, “We’re very fortunate,<br />
we feel very supported by<br />
this community, and by the business<br />
community.” The <strong>Medway</strong><br />
Shaw’s and The Muffin House,<br />
for example, provide regular donations<br />
of food.<br />
Both <strong>Medway</strong> food pantries<br />
also do accept food donations.<br />
“Sometimes, donations people<br />
will leave for us – they’ll clean<br />
out their own food pantry and<br />
will give us food that is three, four<br />
or five years old, or items that are<br />
dented or damaged,” says Dietrich.<br />
Liam Dietrich worked with<br />
Paul Galante, of the <strong>Medway</strong><br />
Food Pantry, to put together a<br />
“DONATE” guideline sheet for<br />
food donations, which accompanies<br />
this article.<br />
Those who come to the food<br />
pantry for help will not only find<br />
food, they will encounter much<br />
needed compassion from the<br />
25-40 volunteers who run the<br />
pantry, about 15 of whom are<br />
there on a given Saturday morning.<br />
“I firmly believe everyone<br />
who walks in the door should feel<br />
respected, kindness, supported,”<br />
says Dietrich. “We’ll connect<br />
them with resources as we can –<br />
social workers, the senior center.<br />
We get maybe 15, 20 minutes<br />
with them, but we want to make<br />
sure they consider us a resource. I<br />
really don’t know a lot of people<br />
who feel good about needing to<br />
rely on someone else for something<br />
as basic as their food. The<br />
hardest thing is walking in the<br />
door the first time.”<br />
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