Thousands To Be Fed By Capital Region Food Program: Watch

CONCORD, NH — For nearly five decades, the Capital Region Food Program has been working with the business community, nonprofits, and others to ensure hungry residents of Concord and 17 other communities get access to food. The completely nonprofit, all volunteer, private organization collects and distributes about 100 tons of food annually for residents. While other people were navigating slippery roads or early dismissals from school, more than 100 volunteers spent their Tuesday preparing to distribute holiday food baskets to ensure that residents in need in Concord as well as Allenstown, Boscawen, Bow, Canterbury, Chichester, Contoocook, Dunbarton, Epsom, Hopkinton, Loudon, Pembroke, Penacook, Pittsfield, Salisbury, Suncook, Warner, and Webster get a meal during the holidays.

Those volunteers as well as Gov. Chris Sununu and other dignitaries participated in a blessing the holiday food packages and also bestowed awards to two longtime volunteers of the organization.

Maria Manus Painchaud, one of the volunteers with the organization, said during its 46 years of operation, the Capital Region Food Program has distributed more than 3,300 tons of food with a value of just shy of $5 million. Tori Berube, another volunteer, said this year, about 7,000 would be fed with the holiday packages in 2019 – with thousands of volunteers offering their time and resources to assist others.

Two volunteers received "hero" awards for all of their decades of time and energy spent with the organization: Charlie Bristol and Lee Lajoie, both of Concord.

Terry Odell, an interfaith minister, requested whatever deity the volunteers may follow, to bless the good packages.

"We ask blessings upon this gathering and its laborers," she said, "upon the food about to be delivered, all those who have generously done their part, from sower of seeds to those about to transport, and all the many hands in between, bringing such abundance to those awaiting its delivery, with gratitude."

Sununu thanked the volunteers and congratulated the organization for its tireless effort to assist the hungry and those living with food security. Even though New Hampshire had a booming economy, he said, about 10 percent of Granite Staters deal with food insecurity at some point in their lives.

"(It's) a real big issue in terms of making sure we give of ourselves," he said.

At the same time, New Hampshire residents are always looking out for their friends and neighbors – just like all of the volunteers of the program, Sununu said.

For more information about the program, visit https://www.capitalregionfoodprogram.org/.

Editor's note: Both the story and video have been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Minister Odell's name.

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