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. The Dedham Food Pantry Video Click HERE for Dedhan Food Pantry Video Letter to the Editor: The Dedham Food Pantry would like to thank the many volunteers who helped make our recent yard sale a huge success. The Food Pantry raised almost $3500.00 through the combination of the yard sale, bake sale and sale of its private label hot sauce. Another $1300.00 was raised in donations at the yard sale, making this one of the Food Pantry's largest fund raisers. The Food Pantry could not have raised these funds without the many generous donations from the community. Thank you to the Dedham Times, BH Printing, Donahue Real Estate, Dedham TV, Dedham Educational Partnership, and the Dedham Square Circle for assisting in advertising the event. Additional thanks to Roche Brothers Mocha Java and Papa Ginos for their contributions. A special thanks to First Church for storing the items, allowing us to use their space, and to the many volunteers who contributed their time/efforts for the yard sale. Enough items were donated to the yard sale to fill the church's large meeting hall with more items spilling out on to the driveway. There was a steady stream of bargain hunters all morning and many of those people made an extra donation to the Food Pantry. The Food Pantry would like to give thanks to David Ashley of Ashley Food Inc., www.ashleyfood.com who created the special label hot sauce for the Food Pantry. Lastly, our thanks to Tom Clinton from the Youth Commission and the teenagers he brought to help. All of the funds raised by the Dedham Food Pantry go directly towards the purchase of food which is distributed free to the Pantry's Dedham clientele. This is a particularly helpful time for the Food Pantry to raise funds since all donations in the month of April are eligible for matching funds through the Feinstein Grant Program. The Dedham Food Pantry Board of Trustees Yard Sale Photo 1 Yard Sale Photo 2 Yard Sale Photo 3 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 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.