How Many In Our Communities Are Hungry?

By Ellyn Santiago

Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, food pantries know they'll be getting donations. People are generous, especially during the holidays; they want to help their neighbors in need. 

That's awesome. The problem is, people are hungry the other 10 months of the year and many of those are children and the elderly and working poor families in many cases that just cannot make ends meet. Ask any social or human services group in any town and you will hear this refrain: the numbers of people coming in for help are growing every day. 

At the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center, which for hundred and hundreds of families in Stonington, Westerly and North Stonington is a lifeline, 1,500 people are eligible for food assistance and nearly 600 show up for that help every month. 

June is Local Hunger Awareness Month and is a great time to help. The PNC has some events lined up that will make it easy to give!

For starters, Saturday, June 1 is SHRED IT Day at the PNC from
9 a.m. – 12 noon. People are asked to please bring two small to medium boxes of papers to be shredded for the 'cost' of a jar or tow of jelly and jam for their Emergency Food Pantry. 

Check the flyer attached for several other opportunities to help during June. And remember, there will still be another nine months of hunger on our community.