Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local food pantries and organizations have had significant disruption to food supplies.
On Thursday in Rockland, a donation arrived from Utah with 20 tons of food to benefit Interfaith Social Services. This will provide about 42,000 meals for South Shore families.
The donation was from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jared Heaton, the President of the Hingham stake, is hoping this is an example others will follow.
“We encourage all of our members to be mindful of each other and to seek to donate their time or their financial resources to help each other,” said Heaton. “We actually have a pretty structured program where people can donate…and we’ve created a program where we have farms across the country to grow these goods. We have facilities to then professionally pack these goods and process them.”
Rick Doane, the Executive Director of Interfaith Services, says the donation is going to have an immediate impact. They help families in Weymouth, Quincy, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Milton, Scituate, Cohasset, Hull, and Hingham. Additionally, donations will be made to the Weymouth Food Pantry.
“Beginning to end, it’s amazing to see this community involvement, and that’s the great thing,” said Doane. “This pandemic, it’s been horrendous for so many people, and it’s tragic. It is amazing to see our community rally to help those in need.”
