The cupboard is bare, and SMILE needs help filling it

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008

The food pantry, which supplies canned goods and perishables to customers, has not received a huge donation of food in the past month. Donations are usually received from the Maryland Food Bank and the truck usually picks up about 2,000 pounds of food a week.

‘‘The Maryland Food Bank is our biggest [donor] and we haven’t gotten anything for the past several weeks,” Maarja Gandy of Lusby told staff writer Shelley Mascia. ‘‘Our shelves are pretty bare right now.”

Gandy, the pantry coordinator since 2000, picks up extra food at Dollar General and Shoppers Food Warehouse. She usually gets bread, spaghetti sauce and Ramen Noodles from Shoppers, along with the bags that they use.

The pantry stocks the essential items often found in a regular kitchen; soups, peanut butter, crackers, meat, sauces and bread. In the winter, hunters donate venison for the Feed the Hungry Program. The volunteers encourage their clients to ask for anything they are running out of.

If the pantry gets a request for an item by a customer, they will stock it for him and not just stick it in the regular bag. Donations have included canned fruit, canned vegetables and canned tuna. On occasion, the pantry gets a donation of the unusual kind.

‘‘We have a local farmer that once brought in a bushel of basil,” said Peggy Duffy of Lusby. ‘‘We divided it up into sandwich bags and we offered it to people to go along with the chicken that we had that week.”

Just in time for school, the pantry also stocks school supplies for those who have children in need. Children receive loose-leaf paper, pens, pencils and two folders.

The food pantry is supported through the thrift shop sales, monetary donations, food drives by nine churches in the area, schools and donations from individuals and businesses. They receive their perishable food from Food Lion. The pantry is 100-percent volunteer.

‘‘It’s really rewarding to see people get excited,” Duffy said. ‘‘Sometimes people come in and they are excited because we carry granola bars.”

Anyone who is a registered client of SMILE is eligible to receive food from the pantry. It serves people in the vicinity of Broomes Island and further south.

‘‘We have the elderly who often live on fixed income,” Gandy said. ‘‘We don’t turn people away and we aren’t here to judge anyone.”

The volunteers have seen an influx of people needing food in the last couple of months. The average was 650 families. Currently, the pantry serves 900 families a month. It went up 48 percent from last year. The median client age for the pantry is 41 years old.

‘‘Since I started 10 years ago, the clientele has grown,” said Marilyn Hohn of Lusby. ‘‘It’s no longer our traditional families who we normally serve, they haven’t been here before. They are very needy and it’s a sign of the times due to the economy.”

‘‘We accept unopened food and if its perishable it has to be frozen,” Gandy said. ‘‘We also accept canned fruit. We are here to help, we want them to be happy.”

The pantry is also in need of personal toiletries.

FOP’s ‘Raid on the Tiki Bar’ postponed

Coast Guard Auxiliary to host boating safety class starting Sept. 9

In order for those who were born after July 1, 1972, to operate a boat (including a personal watercraft) in Maryland waters, boat pilots need to take and pass a minimum of an eight-hour boating course.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 15-6 will offer a 13-lesson boating safety course starting on Sept. 9. The class will be from 7 to 9 pm. and will be taught at Calvert High School on Dares Beach Road in Prince Frederick. The cost is $35 per person.

This course covers boating safety equipment, how to handle a boat, trailering a boat, aids to navigation, rules of the road, hypothermia, knots boaters should know, weather, boat radios, etc. This course meets the eight-hour boating safety course requirement. After passing an exam, all students will receive a certificate and a card for their wallet stating that they completed the course. This card must be with pilots when operating a boat. Call Bill Noyes at 410-535-0450 or John and Connie Cosgrove, 410-535-1674 to preregister or for more information. Preregistration allows for better planning but is not a necessity.

Mediation centers seek members

The Calvert and St. Mary’s county Community Mediation Centers are taking applications for AmeriCorps members to develop a grassroots community outreach program for free family and community conflict resolution and mediation services.

For more information, call Hope Braveheart at 301-802-9659, or e-mail hope@marylandmediation.org.