Next Meeting The purpose of this web site is to have a useful resource for educating the community on how to contact the board members and how they can use this resource to "Get Involved" by volunteering their time, money, and food donations. The Board usually meets the Second Wednesday of each month and the Volunteers/Board meet the Third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 P.M. at the Food Pantry in the basement of St. John's United Methodist Church. I look forward to seeing all of you. Our offices for Jan-Sept 2008 are: Kristine Anderson/Lynn Rogal-Co-Presidents Lindsay Barich-Vice President Cindy Barich-Treasurer Andrea O'Rourke-Recording Secretary Jeanette Denisi-Corresponding Secretary Rob Naser-Purchasing Manager Paula Goodrich-Grants. Kristine The DFP Yard Sale is on April 19th. Please add this to our website. The dropoff date for items for the yard sale is April 11th 8:30 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. and April 18th 8:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. at First Church, 670 High St., Dedham, MA If you would like to volunteer your services, please join us for our monthly meeting on April 16th @ 6:30 P.M. at St. John's U.M.C., 50 Oakdale Ave., Dedham (meeting is in the basement of the church) The Dedham Food Pantry Video Click HERE for Dedhan Food Pantry Video Dedham Food Pantry Concert Dedham Times Article The Dedham Food Pantry presented Dedham business owners with the opportunity to place a Dedham Food Pantry donation can at their business locations from December 1, 2007 through January 2, 2008, for the benefit of the three-hundred Dedham families assisted by the Food Pantry on a continuous basis and collected a total of $417.85. The following twenty-seven Dedham businesses participated: Blue Bunny, Cathay Kitchen, Cafe Fresh Bagel, C.V.S.-Dedham Square, C.V.S.-East Dedham, Century Antiques, Courtyard Florist, Dedham Community Theater, Dedham Flower Shoppe, Dedham Women's' Exchange, District One Convenience, East Dedham Nail & Spa, Fifties' Diner, High Street Cafe, It's All Greek To Me Restaurant, Java Coffee Shop, Malibu, Mimi's II, Nest, Newbury Yarn, Oakdale Pizza and Coffee Shop, P-K Nail Salon, Pizzadoro, Salon 561, Sergi Barber Shop, Tedeschi Convenience and Wardle's Pharmacy. Each donation can had a sticker affixed to the bottom which contained the name and telephone number of the Dedham Food Pantry contact for the convenience of the business owner. As each can was retrieved at the end of the holiday donation drive, in the presence of an employee at each location, a sticker was affixed to the can's donation slot with the businesses' name on it and it was delivered to the Dedham Food Pantry's volunteer Treasurer to be counted and deposited. A the Women's Exchange, a nonprofit business, there was a customer who, unknown to them, became a Dedham Food Pantry donor by destiny. One of the volunteer sales assistants found a five-dollar bill on the floor and when she discussed with her volunteer coworkers what they should do with it, they decided to put it into the Dedham Food Pantry donation can. The five-year old grandson of the Dedham Food Pantry contact who distributed and collected the donation cans received his first community service experience as he carefully affixed the labels to each slot on the donation cans. He was pleased to go to twenty-two business locations and learn that even he, young as he is, could make a contribution to his community by assisting in collecting money for the benefit of three-hundred financially disadvantaged families in his home town. Both the Women's' Exchange and the Fifties' Diner have requested Dedham Food Pantry donation cans be placed at their locations all year long and not just during the holiday season. Thank you for all your support! Ann Callahan-Spellman Dedham Food Pantry November News: The Pantry would like to thank Katie Lynch and the Dedham Pack #3 Boy Scouts Troop for arranging their annual Food Drive. They picked up over 100 bags of food a few weeks ago! This is an annual event where neighbors get bags on 11/3 left on their porches and the following Saturday 11/10 the Boys Scouts come by and get the bags full of food donations and take them to the Food Pantry. This is a much-appreciated event and a "thank you" goes out to all the residents that contributed to the cause, as the Pantry shelves were getting low! Thanksgiving Turkey Day was on Saturday 11/17 and was a "huge success" as 105 turkeys were given away to needy families and the Pantry would like to thank Roche Brothers for their generous donation! In addition 2 bags of fixings were given away for a complete Thanksgiving meal. President Rob Naser and all the Trustees of the Pantry would like to thank the over 30 volunteers that showed up to help set up and distribute the food on a "cold and windy" Saturday morning at St. Johns school! A special thanks to John Downey Trucking who picked up the food from Roche Brothers and delivered it to the Pantry! The Pantry was also very grateful to volunteer Tim Sullivan who donated supplies and organized with the United Church of Christ volunteers the "painting and cleaning" of the stairway and hallway leading to the Food Pantry in the Basement of St. John's church. Sincerely, Lindsay Barich Trustee News Page Donations are welcome from corporations to private individuals and every penny goes to the purchase of food for the pantry which is a non profit organization. No one is paid on the board and everyone donates their time to this great cause in helping families in need. All money donated is tax exempt and the Pantry will give a receipt for tax purposes. Dedham Day Photo Turkey Day 2007 Thank you to everyone that helped out today in handing out 70 turkeys and fixins to our Food Pantry clients. A special thanks to the Dedham Police Dept for donating the turkeys and helping out. Thank you to St. John's United Methodist Church and others for donating hats, mittens, scarfs, socks, and gloves to keep our clients warm. Some clients walked in with nothing on their hands, and tears were brought to both our eyes when we told them they could pick 1 new item. Additional thanks to St. Johns for letting us use the churches Parish Hall to hand out the items this year. It was nice to have our most of the volunteers warm, while the turkeys were handed out outside. Lindsay and the police who keep our volunteers warm with coffee and donuts too, thank you! All pages are on this site were created, coded and written (Unless otherwise noted) for or by, David Ashley of Ashley Food Company Inc. (www.ashleyfood.com) and are copyright 2007 -2008 Dedham Food Pantry.