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North Brookfield Community Food Collaboration
P O Box 98 North Brookfield, MA. 01535
Mission Statement: The North Brookfield Community Food Collaboration is committed to making North Brookfield a better community to live in by providing food insecure citizens with access to food. We are committed to working with all citizens to provide opportunities to be a bigger part of the community. We support other committees, organizations and individuals whose goal is to improve citizens experiences in our community, whether by providing food, volunteer opportunities or events to gather and share.
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NORTH BROOKFIELD — The giving season is upon us, and a local food pantry is asking the community to help provide for those in need this Thanksgiving.
The North Brookfield Community Food Collaborative is dedicated to helping North Brookfield and surrounding communities serving hundreds through its distributions. The operation feeds an estimated 174 clients a week, including more than 35 from out of town. They also help support outside pantries when possible.
On Oct. 20, Karen Farrington, the founder and President of the North Brookfield Community Food Collaborative, appeared before the Board of Selectmen with a plea, seeking to set up collection bins at town buildings for a food drive to support the Collaborative’s annual Thanksgiving holiday distribution. “We’re going to do our third turkey giveaway to our families. Last year we did 220 turkeys. This year we’re projected to do about 240,” Farrington said. “When we give a bag of nonperishables and a bag of frozen, we put a lot of thought into it. We don’t want to just give you pasta if we can’t give you pasta sauce. Every year, what we’ve done is we’ve collected the fixings to give with the turkey.” The Collaborative depends heavily on rescued food and donations, and Farrington admitted they are struggling to keep up especially with food insecurity becoming a more prevalent issue. They also consider themselves “road warriors” who share their resources with other pantries and programs, but if the donations aren’t there then there’s less to go around. With the need increasing, the group proposed a food drive to encourage the town to donate towards their cause. Selectmen loved the idea, embracing the opportunity to help a worthy organization. They approved holding a town-wide collection setting up boxes at the town offices, library, senior center, fire and police departments, and it was confirmed that the local post offices were on board to serve as drop off sites.
The day after the selectmen approved the drive, the North Brookfield Community Food Collaborative posted some of the needs for their drive on social media. These include canned green beans, turkey gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn muffin mix, and instant mashed potatoes. Volunteers are also being sought for Nov. 15 to help make the bags of fixings and Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. for the food distribution. More information about the food drive, Thanksgiving distribution and other programs can be found on the Collaborative’s Facebook page.
