East Lyme food bank use has quadrupled in five years
East Lyme — The number of families accessing the East Lyme Care and Share food bank has quadrupled since 2020, increasing from 40 to about 160, as the organization expands to meet the demand.
The need keeps growing," said Care and Share President Pat Payne this week.
Payne said the bank served 17 new families in January and February. The total number of people served in January reached 337 or about 150 families, comprising 102 children and 235 adults.
Payne said the demographics of the food bank's clientele have changed in the past few years, and so have those calling its hotline, which receives about 300 calls a month.
"For a while it was mostly families with young kids," Payne said Tuesday. "Now we're getting a lot of older people who are single now, we get people with health issues. Helping them with food helps them pay for their medical needs. We may get a family that comes every month, sometimes we get ones who come for a little while, just to get themselves over a hump."
Payne said the pantry began in 1989, when four women gave out Thanksgiving meals. Now the organization has 125 volunteers, 65 of whom are "extremely active." The charity runs entirely on donations and uses space in the Town Garage for free.
"We couldn't do it without that," she said.
Calls for food, energy, counseling all growing
Director of Youth and Family Services Sarah Firmin said Wednesday her department is also seeing more and more calls for not just food bank referrals but from families needing housing and fuel assistance as well as counseling services.
"Some moved from out of state that may be leaving a domestic violence situation and need to get back on their feet, some people have medical conditions that prevent them from seeking employment," Firmin said. "Some just can't afford their rent because it keeps increasing so much."
Given these trends and the rising cost of food, she said she wasn't surprised to hear the use of the Care and Share pantry has increased.
Payne said Wednesday since she took over as president five years ago, local charities like the Lions and Rotary clubs, and individuals, have bought the bank all new shelving, freezers and refrigerators.
"Everything in this place was old and falling apart," she said about the need for the new equipment. "People just came through."
One couple, Tom and Tracey Mirsky, has volunteered at Care and Share for about a decade.
"It's gratifying," they said in tandem.
"It's making a difference in peoples lives," Tom Mirsky said. "There's a lot of need out there. We have homeless people that come to us, we have people that are living in their cars. They're desperate and we try to make their lives better."
"I remember one man who came, and I'll never forget this," Tracy Mirsky added, telling the story of a man who took a jar of pickles, or maybe olives off the shelf, and stared at it in disbelief.
"And he said, 'I can take this?' And he kept looking at this jar and I said 'Yes, you can', he was like clutching it." Tracy said this moment stuck with her.
Payne described her own memorable moment.
"This gentleman came in, nice clean car, pressed slacks, very pleasant," she said. "He told me, 'If it wasn't for you, I couldn't feed my kids.'"
After that, Payne knew the food bank helps more people than actually walk through the door.
The most difficult part of running the bank, Payne said, is that it can serve only people in East Lyme and Salem.
"The hardest part is when we have to say we can't, she said.
Food isn't all Care and Share distributes to the needy. Payne estimates it's given out more than 500 new and gently used coats this winter. There's a shelf of books the East Lyme Public Library keeps supplied and underneath are birthday bags for children. It pays for a number of children to attend the town's Parks and Rec summer camp and holds a backpack drive for students.
Starting at the end of this month, Care and Share will launch its first spring coat drive, giving out windbreakers and raincoats.
For more information on how to donate or become a client, visit http://www.careandshareofel.org/
j.lakowsky@theday.com
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