For seven hours, volunteers unfolded, taped and stacked boxes. Five thousand boxes, to be exact. And if you’ve never seen 5,000 boxes stacked almost to the ceiling of a warehouse, it was crystal clear to us that these people would be hard to beat in one of Jim Kinhan’s large cup stacking challenges.
Just a few feet away, other volunteers combed through bins and pallets of donated food. They checked the dates on each can and the quality of each box. The acceptable food went on the table in front of them, so the “shoppers” could put it with food of its own kind. There were boxes – different from the stacked ones – labeled for every kind of fruit and vegetable, from peaches to green beans, along with ones for pasta sauce, baby food and baking supplies. Everything had a proper place, although it was not always clear, which prompted a discussion as to where olives belonged. (FYI, it was with the condiments because there was no martini supply box.)
The construction of the boxes and the sorting of the food last Tuesday was just the first day of the Capital Region Food program’s 41st Holiday Food Basket Project at the NH National Guard Armory, and there were still nine days to go.
The next five days were spent filling all those empty boxes with the sorted goods so people in need could have food for the holidays. Days two and three were used to fill the standard boxes, 1,250 each day spread out across the armory’s floor. The standard boxes consist of canned goods, like green beans, tuna and soups, and other non-perishable items, such as instant potatoes, cereal and crackers, that give people enough staples to supplement their meals for an additional two to three weeks after the holidays.
“The power of this program and the power of the community is just incredible,” said holiday food basket chair woman Maria Manus Painchaud. “It’s just people helping people.”
Once the 2,500 standard boxes were done, it was on to the custom boxes – spread out in the same, 1,250 a day pattern – designed to give a family everything it needs to cook a classic holiday dinner. These boxes include things like fresh potatoes, carrots, onions, apples and either a turkey, chicken or some sort of protein. And those are added last minute from the Market Basket refrigeration truck out back.
“It’s totally inefficient by design,” said Manus Painchaud. “There’s a method to our madness.”
Each family gets two boxes, one standard and a custom, as part of the program that serves 2,500 families and about 8,000 residents in Concord and 17 surrounding communities. The only thing that could be disappointing is that the food comes in a box and not an actual basket.
“This program does some good for people,” said volunteer Lee Lajoie. “It’s the time of year where it’s nice to make a difference.”
The food program is not to be confused with a food bank (because it’s not one). It doesn’t even have a building of its own to store all the food – that’s why volunteers use the armory for 10 days every December to complete this much needed endeavor.
“We act as the one who gets it to the people who need it,” Manus Painchaud said. “But this is the only time we deal directly to the recipient.”
By Dec. 22, they’re ready to start moving the boxes out the door. Starting at 5:30 a.m., the 13 satellite agencies, who serve the areas around Concord, pick up their boxes to distribute to families, and on Christmas Eve eve (Dec. 23), volunteers drive door-to-door dropping off food. If people aren’t home, they’ll go back on Christmas Eve and again on the 26th if needed.
“Every thing’s delivered at least once by the end of the day on the 23rd,” Manus Painchaud said. “We’ve got people that volunteer just on delivery day because it means so much.”
Overall, about 1,000 volunteers, some families spanning generations, work in two-to-eight-hour shifts over the 10 days.
“It’s important to recognize there are 1,250 families represented by those boxes on the floor,” Lajoie said of each filling day.
The list of families has been about 2,500 for the last few years, a far stretch from the first year, when less than 100 families each got a single box out of the Concordia Lutheran Church. It was started by Manus Painchaud’s father, Mark Manus, in 1974, to give people a boost around the holidays. Four years into the program, a second box was added, and it’s filled a need ever since. The holiday program has partnered with Market Basket for 35 years, buying food at a discounted price, and the last 38 has involved Manus Painchaud.
“It’s great to share the story of what we do,” said Jill Teeters, marketing coordinator for the food program.
The basket program also gets donations from all over. The law offices in town hold a food drive, the high school holds a faculty challenge where the teachers don’t each lunch and donate what they would have spent and the Boy Scouts annual Scouting for Food is a steady help. The school districts have always been big supporters, bringing in bus loads. Food drop offs take place at various stages of the week. The rest is bought with monetary donations.
“Every single dollar that’s donated purchases food,” said Teeters. “100 percent.”
The rest of the year, the program distributes food to as many as 30 agencies out of Associated Grocers in Pembroke on the second Tuesday of the month.
“The best way people can help is to donate money,” Teeters said.
So when the 10th day comes and goes the day after Christmas, it will be as if the holiday basket program was never even at the armory. The empty boxes will be long gone, the mass quantities of food now in the homes of the people who really need it, and the volunteers already thinking about next year. And next year, it will happen all over again.
