By Mike LaBella
mlabella@eagletribune.com
September 02, 2008 01:30 am <Caption>Angie Beaulieu/Staff photo Sacred Hearts Parish food pantry volunteers, from left, Nancy Nataloni, Jim Boland, Rose Boland, outreach coordinator Bill LaPierre, and Mary Bates. </Caption> HAVERHILL SEmD Last year, volunteers working at the Angelo Petrozzelli Food Pantry handed out bags of groceries to an average of 300 families a month. Last month, the pantry served 675 families, the most since the pantry opened last summer, said Bill LaPierre, parish outreach coordinator for Sacred Hearts Church, which sponsors the pantry. "We've seen people we've never seen before and they are hurting, and it's because of the economy," LaPierre said. It's a problem being seen across Haverhill. The Salvation Army is seeing three times as many visitors to its free lunch program, and the Haverhill Hunger Roundtable is making four times as many trips to Boston food banks to restock its shelves because of the demand at its pantry. And organizers all say the downturn in the economy is to blame. On the Mondays and Fridays the Petrozzelli Pantry is open, the lines have been out the door, requiring additional volunteers to do the work of registering applicants, tracking and logging the amount of food distributed, noting the age groups seeking food for a monthly report, repackaging certain food items and restocking the shelves. Many of those volunteers are senior citizens. The Petrozzelli Pantry is resupplied by the Boston Food Bank, through donations from parishioners, the church's St. Vincent DePaul Society, schools, local businesses, other churches, as well as the annual Betsy Conte Food Drive and the U.S. Postal Service workers food drive. "Even with all of the food we are given we still have to buy more, as there just isn't enough," LaPierre said. "We could not operate our pantry without the generosity of our parish and all of those in Haverhill who donate to us." Haverhill's Salvation Army, one of eight meal sites in the city, provides lunches three days a week to Haverhill's needy, and it operates a food pantry three days a week as well. At a recent lunch, 163 people showed up for a meal, which is nearly triple last year's lunchtime average, said Robin LoCascio, outreach coordinator. "Demand at our food pantry has tripled as well," LoCascio said. "In my 27 years of work here, I've never seen anything like this. Our shelves are empty and we just can't get enough. I get a delivery from the Boston Food Bank and it's all gone by the next week. It's really bad this year." Bill Browning, chairman of the Haverhill Hunger Roundtable, used to visit the Lowell and Boston food banks once a month to pick up items needed to help stock the shelves of Haverhill's food pantries. This year, he's been behind the wheel of his van every week. Browning said the city's many pantries and free meal sites are being inundated with more needy individuals and families than any time in the last 10 years he's been chairman. "It's been a steady increase and it hasn't stopped," Browning said. "We're glad people know the resources are out there but it's becoming overwhelming. Sometimes we have to give less as we have more people to give to. Some pantries have put up signs saying 'no food.'" Browning pays the food banks 16 cents a pound for salvaged food that comes from supermarkets and through donations by businesses. Items he picks up on a weekly basis include bread, cereal, meat, pasta, pre-made salads (all fresh) and juice. Funds to buy the food come from local organizations such as the George C. Wadleigh Foundation and the Griffin White Foundation. Members of the Universalist Unitarian Church pitch in at this time of year, too, by delivering freshly picked ears of corn to Haverhill's meal sites and pantries as part of their annual Cornucopia Project. More than 7,000 ears of corn were recently distributed to Haverhill's needy, Browning said. The federal government provides Browning with canned fruits and vegetables, canned tuna and frozen meats. But there is a limit to how much food he is allowed. "This year it's not enough and we're trying to keep up," Browning said. "It's a constant, unrelenting need to resupply."
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