The pantry is open
By Roger Bailey
Contributing writer
The need is great – far greater than most realize.
That’s the assessment of Pastor Paul Schauer, who with a few others in the Wilton community, has opened the Wilton Food Pantry.
It’s well known that hunger is a huge urban problem. It’s not nearly as widely-recognized as a problem in small communities like Wilton.
Since its first distribution of food to 10 people in need on December 19, the food pantry increased its number of food baskets (actually good-sized boxes) to 20 in January. Schauer expects the list to keep growing.
"We were surprised at the need. We thought when he started that maybe we might have 10 families. We’re at 20 and still growing," said the pastor of Sunne Lutheran Church of rural Wilton. Schauer works the program, which is under the sponsorship of Sunne Lutheran Church, for legal and insurance reasons, with a board of directors of six.
The food is distributed the third Thursday of each month (the next is Thursday, February 20) from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Wilton Senior Center on main street. The board and volunteers pack the boxes with a variety of staples including cereal, crackers, soup, boxed processed milk, rice, pasta, peanut butter, beans and other canned vegetables, canned fruits and other products.
