The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries has announced that the 2014 Firehouse Food Drive held on April 26, raised 6,285 pounds of food for local residents in need. With the largest group of participating fire stations ever, volunteers and donors across the shoreline donned their raingear to lend a hand during the stormy Saturday morning.
The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries (SSKP) is particularly grateful that this drive was a success, despite the rainy weather, because March and April are traditionally slow donation months.
This is the third year that area fire stations have participated in the drive. Ten towns, including Old Lyme, joined in the effort. The remaining towns were Old Saybrook, Westbrook, Essex, Killingworth, Chester, Deep River, North Madison, Clinton and Niantic. Firehouses provided staff and publicity, opened their doors as drop-off locations and helped to deliver donations to the pantries. Many stations also set up tents and sorting stations, handed out grocery bags, posted social media announcements, distributed lists of most-needed foods, and collected food at other April fire house events.
In addition, the Clinton Shop Rite, Clinton Stop & Shop, Old Saybrook Stop & Shop, and Roberts Food Center of North Madison offered additional donation areas, manned by firehouse volunteers. This year the Old Saybrook firehouse brought in media sponsors, including Shore Publishing, who donated large advertisements in three newspapers. Radio stations Soft Rock 106.5 WBMW, Connecticut’s Hottest Jamz Jammin 107.7, and 94.9 News Now! helped get the word out with a live broadcast from the Old Saybrook firehouse, and AM stations WMRD 1150 and WLIS 1420 made many public service announcements.
“Every day the personnel of our volunteer fire stations are available to help those affected by fire and emergencies—they never turn down a call for assistance and raise their hearts and hands to help those in need. On April 26, once again these amazing men and women gave of their precious time to answer the call of those most needy in our community. On behalf of SSKP and those we serve, thank you so much for this amazing gift of time and help—not only to our many fire stations, but to all those who dropped off food—you made a real difference in the lives of your neighbors”, said Patty Dowling, SSKP Executive Director.
The need for donated food is ongoing throughout the year, and SSKP urges other community groups to consider organizing food drives. The Shoreline Soup Kitchen’s five pantries distributed over 1 million pounds of food in 2013. Only 40 percent of this food is obtained through food banks; the remainder must be either purchased or donated.
The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries provides food and fellowship to people in need and educates the community about hunger and poverty, serving the Connecticut shoreline towns of Essex, Chester, Clinton, Madison, Old Saybrook, East Lyme, Lyme, Old Lyme, Killingworth, Westbrook and Deep River. Founded 25 years ago, in 1989, at the Baptist Church in Essex, the agency continues in its mission to feed the hungry in body and spirit. Last year with a small staff and over 900 dedicated volunteers, SSKP served enough food for over 908,000 meals to shoreline neighbors in need.
Call 860-388-1988 or visit www.shorelinesoupkitchens.org for more information. All drives, no matter what the size, are greatly appreciated.
I spent a fair amount of time with friends and sometimes acquaintances turn out to be friends. As usual, we talk about food.
About the author: Lee White (left) is a resident of Old Lyme in a section of town where she and her house are the oldest members. She has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for the Shore Publishing newspapers, and Elan, a quarterly magazine, all of which are now owned by The Day. 
