On January 9th, Ginger Morton, President of the Williston Community Food shelf, spoke at our club about feeding our neighbors in need, and provided a progress update for the 3 Rotary Grants given to the WCFS last Spring. The 3 Grants were for a Pet Care project, a Hygiene project, and a Walk to Shop project.
The Williston Community Food Shelf is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to the elimination of hunger in the towns of Williston, St George, Richmond and Essex / Essex Junction, Vermont Their mission is to provide high quality food and connections to essential support services to those in need in our community. Their clients are the elderly on fixed incomes, neighbors with disabilities and working families whose paycheck isn’t enough to cover the necessities. They serve over 1000 individuals (330 families) each month.
Pet Care Project - The grant given allowed the WCFS to purchase wet canned cat food this year. While dry pet food is donated by community members regularly, wet canned food has to be purchased. Pet food is thought of as a secondary basic need, but many clients (across the US) sometimes feed their pets before they feed themselves. https://petsmartcharities.org/press-releases/fido-comes-first-new-survey-reveals-pet-parents-would-go-hungry-to-make-sure-pets-don-t
Hygiene Care Project - Good hygiene is another basic human need the WCFS focuses on. The Food Shelf rarely receive physical donations for hygiene products, which can be quite expensive. Hygiene products are bought from local stores out of financial donations given and are not products that they can purchase at a discount at the central Food Bank.