Mendham Scouts Provide Food Pantry Relief

A pair of Mendham girl scouts spent the day outside the Mendham Apothecary collecting donations for the Chester Food Pantry and collected 75 pounds of goods.

"That was a tough 75lbs as it was mostly light hygiene products," said Jacki Spinelli, who runs the Chester Food Pantry.

This effort follows the Saturday work of Chester scoutKatherine Flanagan, who stood outside of ShopRite in Chester for two hours and collected 150 pounds worth of food.

"That is enough for two families in August," Spinelli said. "And was actually a van full of food."

Spinelli, who runs the Chester Food Pantry, said that whenever they need help the community always comes through. Facing a 3,000-pound shortfall of the items they need to feed the 45 local families they serve each month, Spinelli once again put out feelers into the community, and they responded.

According to Spinelli they deliver, on average, 75 pounds of goods to each family each month and also provide support to the Meals on Wheels program.

“Our shelves are more bare than they have ever been and our August and September deliveries are in jeopardy,” said Spinelli.

WHAT is being collected:                                

Any non-perishable, unopened, non-expired, food, hygiene products and paper products. 

WHERE you can donate:

• Chester ShopRite (on the way out between the doors)
• Chester Library
• Community Presbyterian Church – Chester
• Starbucks – Chester
• Weichert Realtors– Chester and Mendham
• Ellmann Pools

Spinelli said that what is NOT needed is pasta, canned soup or canned vegetables. She did say that there were a few surprising items on the list of needs.

"Pet food and paper goods," Spinelli said. "You can't buy certain things with food stamps."

Spinelli also said that while the target weight was important, it is just a benchmark. 

"I don't want people to forget about the light products like the paper products, hygiene products, cereals, etc," Spinelli said. "We may use it as a measure but it is not all about weight."

According to Spinelli, the need is not exaggerated and the time to help is now.

“We need enough to get through August and September,” Spinelli said. “ Typical donations don't start coming back until school is in session and everyone is back from vacation.”