Westwood Food Pantry Needs Your Support!

Westwood Food Pantry* is low on food supplies and needs donations from Westwood residents. Westwood Youth Lacrosse recently held a successful food drive. Westwood parent
Tracey Kiley organized it with fifteen lacrosse teams (about two hundred players) and their families. On a Sunday in May, Kiley and fellow volunteers set up drop-off locations at both Flahive Field and the Westwood High School multipurpose field. They collected eight car loads of donations and dropped them off to the Food Pantry, at the Council on Aging.

Melissa Mahaffey, President of the Westwood Food Pantry Board remarked, “We are so grateful to Tracey and all the Westwood Youth Lacrosse families for stepping up to help out on such short notice. Their donations were stocked on the shelves and put to immediate use. We are so appreciative of their support.” The need for the drive was clear to the Food Pantry Board. Over the past year, the Food Pantry has experienced a significant increase in households accessing the Food Pantry. Currently, over one hundred Westwood residents access the Food Pantry on a bimonthly basis. In addition, the late spring and summer months often see a drop in donations to the Food Pantry, even though the need for food remains steady.

Westwood residents who want to help the Westwood Food Pantry have several options available to them. They can follow in Westwood Youth Lacrosse’s footsteps and hold a food drive with their neighborhood, religious institutions, school, or club. Monetary donations are welcome as well, and allow the Food Pantry to order most needed items from local grocery stores and online services. Financial contributions can be mailed to Westwood Food Pantry, PO Box 854, Westwood, MA 02090. Finally, Westwood residents can pick up needed items while at the grocery store and drop them off at Council On Aging at 60 Nahatan Street Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. or Friday from 8:00am-2:00pm.

Currently, the Food Pantry is most in need of the following items:

• canned tuna
• canned fruit
• soup
• cereal
• salad dressing
• peanut butter
• grape jelly
• mayonnaise
• vegetable and olive oil
• cake and brownie mixes
• pancake mix
• maple syrup
• tea bags
• household cleaning items

*As previously disclosed, members of this writer's household have volunteered at the Westwood Food Pantry for over twenty years.