Drive-Thru Donors Replenish Food Pantry

As charities across the state struggle to keep up with ballooning demand for food, Hamden got one truck closer to keeping enough cans and boxes on the shelves of its pantry Wednesday.

Wednesday’s was the second of three food and cloth mask drives at Hamden Middle School this week. By the time it was over, the entire floor of the truck was full. Hamden Community Development Manager Adam Sendroff said the drive had collected a little more than Monday’s.

By about 11 a.m., Sendroff had only a little bit of truck bed left to stand on. The rest of the box truck’s floor was covered in bags of cans, boxes, and jars bound for the town’s food pantry at the Keefe Community Center and for the Elderly Services Department’s food pantry.

On Saturday, the town announced that it would hold three food and cloth mask drives this week. The pantry at the Keefe Center is now serving twice the number of people it normally would, and needs extra donations to keep up with the demand.

A few items in particular have been tough to get, said Sendroff. Those include breakfast foods like cereal, pancake mix, hash, grits, oatmeal, and shelf-stable milk. The pantry also needs rice, canned fruit, peanut butter, crackers, and hearty soups. Now that Hamden residents are required to wear face coverings in grocery stores and other public places where they come into contact with other people, many also need masks, but can’t get them.

Carmen Ripoll (pictured above) had clearly read the town’s request before she went shopping Wednesday morning. She came to the middle school right after going grocery shopping for herself, her mother, and the food drive. Police Officers Enrique Rivera and Angela Vey lifted the freshly purchased cereal, peanut butter, and canned soup out of her trunk. They closed the trunk, and Ripoll was on her way to Key Bank in Hamden, where she works.

Lulls between donors were short. Cars trickled in, sometimes forming a three-car line behind the car whose contents were being unloaded.

As they bade each driver farewell, Rivera (pictured above), Vey, or Officer Craig Appleby, who did most of the unloading, carried a lawn sign and placed it into the trunk of the car as thanks.

“Hamden first responders and medical professionals. Thank you! We are staying home to save lives!” the signs read.

Some residents, like Jill Butler, just handed a card through the window with a monetary donation. One Wallingford resident who grew up in Hamden and declined to give his name, just handed a $20 bill through the passenger’s side window.

“It’s overwhelming what we’ve seen so far,” said Sendroff of the donations as he stood in the last of the floor space left at the end of the box truck. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy also stopped by earlier in the morning and made a donation.

Sendroff looked around at the bags and boxes piled up behind him. ​“I never thought I would get to know this truck so well,” he joked.

He’ll have at least one more chance to learn how to pack that white box truck, and hopefully he’ll have to pack even more bags in next time. The last of the food and cloth mask drives is on Friday, from 9 a.m. to noon.