Author: Angie Sykeny

What people need most now — and how to help

Sara Ceaser, Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement for United Way of Greater Nashua.

What have you noticed about the community’s needs right now and over the last year?

More people have been contacting us needing assistance this year, and the number of families that we’re serving has definitely increased. … Winter coats are a consistent need, but we have definitely had more people asking about coats than in previous years. … I feel like the donations we’ve been receiving at the food drives have been a little slimmer this year, which could be because of the cost of groceries.

What items can people give?

Right now, during the winter season, there’s a need for coats and boots and hats and gloves. People can donate those to the Salvation Army, because a lot of organizations direct their clients to the Salvation Army to pick up warm clothing if they need. Those can be new, or used items are always welcome if they’re still in good condition.

Food is always needed. United Way of Greater Nashua does weekly food drives at various stores around the greater Nashua area. We usually announce where those will be on our Facebook page. Food can be donated directly at our food drives, at our local Hannaford stores or to food pantries around the area,like the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, Corpus Christi Food Pantry, the Tolles Street Mission, the Southern New Hampshire Rescue Mission, SHARE Outreach, and there are various food pantries at churches, as well. They’re mostly looking for non-perishable items, like pasta, rice, pasta sauce, canned meats, canned beans, that type of thing.

The Santa Fund collects gifts for children, teenagers and children. They’re collecting new items — toys and gifts that people purchase — which are donated to organizations like The Front Door Agency, the Salvation Army and SHARE Outreach, and those organizations distribute the holiday gifts to children. A lot of things are donated for younger kids, but not a lot of things that are appropriate for older kids, so when people are making donations of physical items, they should definitely keep the older kids in mind. Gifts cards are excellent for teens, as well. Those items can be dropped off at the United Way of Greater Nashua, and there’s also a drop-off location beside Trader Joe’s in Nashua on the Daniel Webster Highway.

We’re always collecting school supplies donations for teachers to use in their classrooms. That’s a project we’ve been doing quite a bit over the past couple of years, and we have a school supplies pantry in our lower level that teachers and other educators can access. With it being the middle of the year, supplies are running a little bit low right now, so we would love some donations.

If people have leftover women’s hygiene products, we do accept those, as well. We donate those to schools, and we have a women’s hygiene supply pantry at Girls Inc. that the public can access.

There’s also been a need for bus passes; the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter collects donations of those.

Any local organization that’s close to your heart would love a donation of physical items, but if you’re not sure what they need, you should call to find out if there’s something specific that they need.

What can monetary gifts be used for?

For this time of year, I would definitely recommend the Santa Fund. They’re accepting cash donations to use to purchase other gifts [in addition to] the physical gifts that are donated.

United Way also has a lot of different projects that we can accept donations for. … One of our projects is a pop-up pantry where we provide fresh fruits and vegetables to people around the community in a different location each day.

Food pantries always accept cash donations to buy food and sometimes other items, like personal hygiene items, and for operational costs. Some of these places also run shelters and provide other services to their clients, like assisting them with finding jobs and finding other resources in the community to help them with housing and that type of thing, so cash donations could help with that, as well.

Where are volunteers needed most?

Winter is a great time to start volunteering and continue volunteering. A lot of our food pantries are looking for volunteers, and United Way of Greater Nashua is looking for volunteers for our food drives. We’re specifically holding food drives the day before Christmas and the day before New Year’s, and we would love to have some volunteers for those. They would basically be sitting at a table outside a store and encouraging shoppers to purchase extra items and passing out fliers to shoppers with suggested items.

We’re also looking for volunteer tutors to do elementary-age tutoring.

How can people find the right volunteering opportunity?

If people are interested in volunteering and don’t know where to volunteer, they should think about if they have specific skills, and if they don’t see a call for that specific skill, they should ask local nonprofits. Having a conversation and telling them what your skills and interests are is really the best way to find your place as a volunteer.

Area food pantries

• Corpus Christi Food Pantry
3 Crown St., Nashua, 882-6372, corpuschristifoodpantry.org
• Families in Transition Food Pantry
176 Lake Ave., Manchester, 641-9441, fitnh.org/services/food-programs
• Goffstown Network Food Pantry
7 N. Mast Road, Goffstown, 497-3433, goffstownnetwork.org
• Hooksett Community Food Pantry
35 Main St., Hooksett, 485-7222, hooksettkiwanis.org
• Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter
2 Quincy St., Nashua, 889-7770, nsks.org
• Sacred Heart Food Pantry
247 S. Main St., Manchester, 668-4004, sacredheartchurch-nh.com
• SHARE Outreach
1 Columbus Ave., Milford, 673-9898, sharenh.org
• Shepherd’s Pantry
1 Church St., Windham, 432-2150, shepherdspantry.net
• Southern NH Rescue Mission
40 Chestnut St., Nashua, 889-3421, hope4nashua.org
• Tolles St. Mission Food Pantry
52 Whitney St., Nashua, 880-4984, thetollesstreetmission.org
• The Upper Room Food Pantry
36 Tsienneto Road, Derry, 437-8477, urteachers.org

• NH Food Bank distributes food to more than 400 partner agencies across the state. Visit nhfoodbank.org/find-food/food-map to find more local organizations accepting food donations.

Featured photo: Sara Ceaser. Courtesy photo.

Families in Transition has revamped its food pantry

Families in Transition, in partnership with Hannaford Supermarkets, launched a newly remodeled Families in Transition Food Pantry in Manchester last month, reimagined to resemble the look and feel of a traditional grocery store. Stephanie Savard, chief external relations officer at FIT, talked about the pantry’s unique concept.

How does the newly remodeled Families in Transition Food Pantry work?

It’s literally like a mini grocery store. When folks come in, there’s shopping carts and baskets. They check in at the check-in station, and then they can shop through the store. … There are two sort-of aisles — one for our breads and our desserts and bakery items, and then the next aisle is all of the pantry items, like pastas and canned foods. Then, as you move down the aisles, you come across the dairy section, a meat section and a produce section. Hannaford helped us with the purchasing of refrigerated fans so that it looks just like the produce department at a grocery store. It’s displayed beautifully, and folks can just walk up and pick the produce that they want. … People can either bring their own reusable bags, or we can put [the food] in boxes. As they’re leaving, they check out like you would with a cashier. … Hannaford even helped us with getting a huge food scale so that we can weigh the food and know how many pounds of food is donated on a regular basis. … People put their food on the scale and weigh it before they leave. Then, they bring all that good food home to their family.

How did this idea come about?

The Families in Transition Food Pantry was moved to a new location in December 2020. Because it was during Covid, we had to do it quickly. It did the job to get food in the hands of those who needed it, but it had a very warehouse-like feel to it. We really wanted to improve the customer service of the pantry. … We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Hannaford. They are the primary sponsor and donor of all of the fresh produce that we receive. We’ve continued to talk with them about how we can bring better services and better quality to the food pantry. They knew we wanted to do something different, and they really rose to the occasion when we talked about wanting to make it like a shopping experience and wanting to do a better job of inventorying the food that we receive from them. … This amazing donation by Hannaford allowed us to renovate the front portion of the food pantry to look like a mini grocery store.

How many families does the pantry serve?

Before the renovation, we were averaging about 400 unique households a month. Since the renovation, we’ve more than doubled, and we’re averaging about 900 a month. It used to be that people could come in daily or weekly, but we’ve seen such an increase that we had to switch to once a month because we were concerned that our food quantity couldn’t keep up with the pace. It’s hard to say whether the demand went up because of inflation — food, utility and gas prices are higher — or because people are feeling more comfortable coming to our pantry. I’d like to say it’s a combination of both.

What has the response been from families who have used the pantry so far?

The response has been so positive. It’s really bringing dignity and choice for those who are food-insecure. They can choose their own food as opposed to waiting in a line with a big box and just taking whatever is given to them. It’s an opportunity to respect that they know what’s best for their family and know how to meet their family’s needs.

Are other food pantries doing this?

We did some research, and there are definitely some facilities across the country that are doing this, but it’s not common. We’ve had some other shelters and food pantries in New Hampshire and in Maine reach out to us to ask if they could come tour our pantry because they’re interested in mimicking the model.

Is there anything you want to expand or improve on for the pantry in the future?

One thing is making sure that we have culturally diverse foods in our inventory. We serve a diverse population, and we want to make sure we’re getting the food that they want on their table. That can be tricky when you rely on donations, but we can do that through community food drives where we ask for a variety of ethnic foods, and by collaborating with local food stores and markets that serve different populations.

How can people help?

We always need volunteers to pick up the fresh produce from the grocery stores, sort it, and help in the pantry, checking in customers or helping customers with their shopping. People can learn about how to volunteer and sign up on our website, fitnh.org. Then, there’s donating — whether it’s cleaning out your own pantry at home or getting your friends or business or organization together to do a drive. We also have a “high needs” list on our website so that people can do drives specifically for those types of foods. If people would like to do an ethnic food-specific drive, we can get them a list of things we’d love to get for that.

Featured photo: Families in Transition Food Pantry. Courtesy photo.

The Nature Conservancy gets a new director

Meet Rachel Rouillard, the new state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire.

What is your background conservation work?

I’m a New Hampshire native. I grew up in Keene. My parents were teachers — science teachers, specifically — so I was definitely raised in a home where they helped us cultivate a real appreciation and wonder for the natural world. We went to a lot of state and national parks. That was just part of our home life. … I followed that through school and into my career. … I got an internship in the town planning office in Milford, and that’s where I got my first taste of thinking about natural resource protection and land use. I also worked for the City of Manchester, doing some economic development and historic preservation work. … I was appointed as the first executive director of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program. … Then, I was running a National Estuaries Program, which is an EPA Clean Water Act Program, here on the coast, and I did that for a little over a decade.

What led you to The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire?

The mission of protecting land and water for people — of being both a steward of our natural resources and of our human communities — is something that’s really central to who I am and everything I’ve done over the course of my career. Thinking about the intersection of our natural world and people, how natural resources support our communities and sustain us, and how people can both use and value those natural resources, is something that is really interesting to me and really drives me.

What does your job as state director entail?

It’s thinking a lot about partnerships, about how we can bring the creativity, resources and innovations that we have at TNC into those partnerships and how we can work collaboratively. … We work with other land trusts and state agencies to protect the lands and waters that we rely on and that are most critical to our future. These are the lands that are producing our clean drinking water. How can we improve public health outcomes while protecting biodiversity? … We also think about new ways that places can be used for recreation, how we can create more recreation opportunities for people and make them accessible to as many people as we can. Having opportunities to be in nature is really important to people’s well-being and to an overall society that’s healthy, vibrant and equitable.

What are some of the long-term goals you’re working on?

We’re thinking a lot about climate change and what we’re doing with our partnerships to really prepare for the impacts of climate change. We’re working to develop new solutions to help us address the aging infrastructure that we have when it comes to increasing storm events so that we can minimize the risk to public health and to public investment in infrastructure going forward. As our climate warms, we’re also facing an increased threat from new pests that are coming north and affecting our plant and animal species, so we have to think about how to build resilience in our ecological communities. We’re thinking about carbon and how we can help ensure opportunities for adequate carbon storage in the environment that we’re protecting and investing in. Lastly, we’re looking at clean energy and how we can work with our partnerships in the state to advance clean energy policies.

What do you find rewarding about your work?

On a personal level, I want to be part of something that is bigger than myself. I think we all feel that way. We all want to do something that we feel has deeper meaning and connection and benefit to others. I take that really seriously and appreciate the opportunity to be a steward of resources for our future. … In this line of work, you have to be really open-minded and always adapting the way that you’re thinking and working. I love the creativity and the challenge that’s associated with that.

Featured photoRachel Rouillard. Courtesy photo.