Westborough Food Pantry

Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in the Westborough Food Pantry. In 1986 a dedicated group of town residents created the Food Pantry so that families in our town would have a good array of nutritious food to supplement their larders.

Since its beginning, it has been the goal of the Pantry to treat our clients with dignity and respect, while fulfilling the requirements of our partner agencies. We try to offer a well-rounded array of foods for their weekly selection and offer, as well, some basic non-food items such as paper products and personal care products on a rotation basis.

The food Pantry is open for business on Thursdays from 9:30 -11:30 AM and from 7:00 - 8:00 PM; clients can choose to come either time, as it best fits into their family's lifestyle. Clients are encouraged to fill their grocery bag(s) with the food that is stocked in the Pantry to fit their family's dietary needs and preferences. Where there are quantity limitations, those limits are posted clearly on the shelves or on the refrigerators.

Thank you,

Westborough Food Pantry Board

Did you know?

• The Westborough Food Pantry opened in 1986 providing approximately 30 people with food. Each family was given 1 bag of groceries per week. Mostly single people or couples received the food.

• Today the Food Pantry provides food for over 80 families giving up to 3 bags of groceries for families of 5 or more (292 people are served).

• We have a completely volunteer staff of 46, giving many hours of their time each week to purchasing food, stocking shelves, sorting goods by expiration dates, cleaning, repairing, and handling administrative duties.

• Last year we collected over 57,000-lbs of food for distribution.

• This September we have been distributing 125-130 bags per week. Each bag is estimated at 15-20-lbs which averages out to 2,000-lbs of food per week distributed.

• Federal/USDA data, values food at $1.66 per pound. Fortunately we receive many donations of food rater than having to purchase all of the food we need.

• An average town-wide food drive each year provided by the Post Office, Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, WASA, Temple B’Nai Shalom, etc., yields approximately 20,000-lbs. Other smaller food donations from residents, churches, schools and businesses help to replenish the on-going weekly distributions.

• We also receive generous monetary donations from our community which we use to purchase perishables such as: meat, eggs and bread.

• We need to raise approximately $14,000 for fresh fruit and vegetables, $20,000 for meat, $1,500 for bread and $4,800 for eggs (37,400 eggs per year!!). Plus another $15,000 to cover additional food purchases.

 Westborough is an extremely generous community. We are fortunate to have these resources available to us. Thank you to all of you for all you do.

 September 2011