Community Food Pantry expands its service hours

WARDSBORO — The Jamaica/Wardsboro Community Food Pantry is now open on the second Wednesday of each month, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

This is in addition to a long-established schedule of the last Wednesday of each month, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Food Pantry Coodinator Elaine Beckwith said that the need to add a distribution day mid-month stemmed from “too many of our clients having difficulties making it through to the end of the month.”

Clients on fixed or limited incomes are finding it especially difficult to keep up with rising prices for groceries and other neccessities, she added.

Although Beckwith said the pantry has not seen an increase in households requesting assistance, staff have been aware of increased stress caused by economic conditions.

The Jamaica/Wardsboro Community Food Pantry, in the vestry of the Wardsboro Yoked Church on Main Street, provides nutritious, supplemental food that meets the special needs of its clients - families with young children, the elderly, and those who find themselves in crisis by dint of illness or other circumstances.

Beckwith said the pantry helps anyone who asks with no requirements and with no questions asked: “Our service is confidential, supportive and nonjudgmental.”

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