RUMFORD — Hoping to make Thanksgiving a little brighter next month for area families struggling with the recession, Pastor Justin Thacker of Praise Assembly of God will ask Rumford selectmen at Thursday night’s meeting for a donation to the Rumford church’s food pantry.
The ministry, which delivers a Thanksgiving basket with a 12-pound turkey to families in need in the River Valley, will be delivering 150 such baskets on Saturday, Nov. 20.
He said late Wednesday evening that his church’s food pantry is the only one in Rumford now since the Catholic church’s food pantry closed.
Compounding matters this Thanksgiving, Thacker said the United Church of Christ congregational church in Mexico, also known as the Green Church, will not be doing its annual Thanksgiving giveaway.
“From what I was told by Sue Byam, who runs that program, they weren’t doing it this year because they just don’t have the funds,” he said.
“Ninety percent of our families that we help live in Rumford.”
On Oct. 12, he wrote to selectmen seeking a donation toward the Thanksgiving Giveaway offered by Praise God Assembly’s food pantry, which serves about 200 families in the River Valley area.
Last year, selectmen helped out, approving a $300 donation.
“Your donation helped us buy 1,875 pounds of food,” Thacker wrote. “Any further assistance you could do would be greatly appreciated again this year. Without question, it is the desire of Praise Assembly to help feed the hungry and clothe the destitute who live in our community.”
He said the food pantry opened in 1996, but had to close six years later. The church reopened it on Oct. 8, 2003, and since then, has delivered more than 46,530 pounds of food to 2,060 families, including children, in Rumford and its neighboring communities.
This year’s to-date totals are 183 families helped with food and 3,203 pounds of food distributed.
The pantry is open from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. To help, contact Thacker at 357-4748 or 364-3856.
“We are also open by appointment and we make food deliveries to families without transportation several times per week,” he said. “Our major referral sources are the local town offices, mental health agencies, and word of mouth.”
Thacker said he buys food for the pantry at 16 cents a pound from the Good Shepherd Food-Bank in Auburn.
“So, I can buy a lot of food for $200,” he said.
In 2003, the giveaway program served 20 families at Thanksgiving. Forty families were served in 2004, 50 in 2005, 60 in 2006, 80 in 2007, 86 in 2008, and 125 families last year.
Thacker said town officials usually contact him, asking if the food pantry needs any donations for the church’s Thanksgiving Giveaway, which is why he doesn’t seek donations like other organizations do through Rumford’s initiated-articles process during the budget process.
That’s something he said he didn’t know about.
“We’ve done this every year since the town contacted us asking how they could help, and the town has never said anything about initiated articles requests,” Thacker said. “This is our fourth or fifth year providing this service and they never said anything about that.”
He said last year, former Town Manager Len Greaney learned of their efforts to help families in need with Thanksgiving, and asked how the town could help.
“I know that finances have been tight and that they may not help us, and that’s OK, because we’ve made do before anyhow we could,” Thacker said.
“It is our goal to help make Thanksgiving a little brighter for several men, women and children of our community.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
