Annelle Delorme-Hagerman Food Pantry

Who We Are

In 1994 two teenage boys with the help of their mothers started collecting food at Church of Our Saviour because of their concern for people in the community who didn't have enough food.  The next year an active, young mother from the parish died from cancer.  It was decided to name this developing ministry for Annelle Delorme-Hagerman and with the help of her family and many from the parish it began to grow.

Since we serve different sized families and people with differing tastes, we started offering a "client choice” system where clients “self declare” their need.  In this system our guests are able to pick the type of food they will use (for example: corn over peas in the vegetable section or peanut butter over tuna in the protein section).  The amounts are determined by household size. In order for us to obtain free USDA and MEFAP food from the Greater Boston Food Bank, we are required to have our clients sign a statement of “eligibility”. This also is a “self declaration”.

Registration for the grocery pickup is conducted in the Church of Our Saviour under-croft prior to the start of grocery distribution. Numbered tickets are distributed (one per household) prior to the distribution, and the tickets are randomly drawn. We also include clients who carpool together on the same numbered ticket. Once a client’s ticket is drawn they are registered on the computer, sign the USDA registration sheet and proceed across the parking lot to the Food Pantry distribution building. At that building the client is met by another volunteer and escorted through the building to choose and pickup their groceries. Over the years we have made both our pantry and under-croft handicapped accessible.

In 2019 we had 243 volunteers and gave away over 78,500 pounds of groceries.

All registration, fund raising, food pickup, sorting, stocking, and distribution help are non-paid volunteers. Repair and maintenance work is partially volunteers and partially contracted (depending on complexity).

We are extremely grateful for all the food pantry volunteers and parishioners who regularly support our efforts. The money we have saved from this labor has allowed us to provide substantial amounts of groceries to our guests. We are also extremely thankful for the efforts of those folks in our community that support us with their time as well as monetary donations.