What is a food pantry?  It is a place where people go if they need emergency groceries.  Each client is given enough food to last about three days.  Food pantries can be organized by a community, a local church or a concerned citizen.  Some pantries are connected to larger food banks such as The Greater Boston Food Bank and are given free items available that week, but they can also purchase additional items at a reduced cost.   The smaller pantries, which do not have the space or the staff to be connected with a food bank, rely completely on private and community donations to survive.  Wherever a pantry sources from, we have found that money donations far surpass food donations.

Why are money donations better? Unless a food drive is held in real time, like at a grocery store, food drives are not always successful.  History has shown that most of us clean out our cabinets and do not always check the expiration dates.  GCI has discovered that money allows the pantry staff to purchase specific staple items they may be low on like peanut butter, canned fruit, tuna and cereal.   

How?  Since 2008, Gathering Change, Inc. has encouraged individuals and organizations to collect spare change for their local food pantries.  Keep a designated bowl in your home or business to throw your extra change in at the end of each day.  When you donate your collected change to GCI, we give a check to the pantry in the town where the money was raised.  Simple and sustainable!!  See www.gatheringchangeinc.org for more information and contact
 info@gatheringchangeinc.org or call 617-548-5357 for a spare change pick up.