hello and welcome to what's going on i'm jan knight and with me today are david d'agostino the station coordinator for the belmont post office and tell us what this program is ok every year on the second set of the letter carriers will collect food at your house as we deliver the mail and we will bring the food back to the belmont food pantry wonderful and so it's that second saturday of may and every year yes and so the food should be on your porch either the night before early in the morning because you know we're not sure what time will get there so if we get there early it will be ready for pickup and i will take it will take anything you put oh and speaking of have rice and we'll even take toiletry items you know and anything from toilet paper paper towels to brushes toothpaste deodorant pretty much anything that you would actually purchase when you go grocery shopping except something that's perishable right or something that's home cooked however wonderful it would be just can't go in there unless it's that greedy and and the food that there are you looking at the fact that anything that you know like ten post offices in the country and it was a success so in ninety two i believe the quinsey post office started it around here and it was very successful so they formed a committee of which i was involved in and we decided to do it as a branch which branch thirty four of the n a l c probably includes about forty five cities and towns maybe more of you know reminding everyone that this is happening these guys are tremendous they they go out on saturday morning they come to work they sort everybody's mail and then they go out and deliver the mail and then they also pick up the food that you leave and they bring it to the food pantry and it doesn't make any difference what kind of weather it happened yes they're true to form sleet snow rain anything they deliver the mail and they bring the food to the pantry i think one year we had so much rain it was like they would need a boat just to get to  thing should the people who are just donating food use any particular kind of bag speaking of bad weather or is just a plastic bag or a paper grocery bag sufficient i think a bag with a handle is used oh yes we can kind of disappear it up as we go along and i think what most people do is they put the little postcard we deliver a little post reminder yes that we add in the food and a lot of people will staple that post on to the bag put it somewhere so we can identify we don't want to take the wrong bag of somebodies porch and saw a bag with a handle and we can just kind grab it and go ok and and that it's taken to the the food pantry and this food is primarily stays in belmont is that correct all of the food that belmont residents put out on their doorstep comes directly to the belmont food pantry is stays in belmont so everything clicked in belmont stays in belmont so what happens is that on our end of the food pantry we have everything in a system to so  letter carrier comes up with a vehicle and the first thing we say is what were to you so we mark down the route and then we unload the bags and we help them unload the bags from the vehicles and we put it in the hallway and once it's all done we count how many bags were required how many bags that they collected on their route then have other volunteers take those bags and put them into the storage room and then we start unloading and sorting and shelving food so by the end of the the day you know by six o'clock we have an idea of how many bags have been collected in belmont ok you mentioned something that i also wanted to ask you patty was how can people a volunteer additionally if they want to participate in this is such a great program and who do they contact at the belmont who pantries do they call you who are well we have our own website so if you google belmont food pantry because that is the google site so the anderson is really long so if you just google do a search and say belmont food pantry that will come up they'll be the first thing and you just click on that and then we have an e mail that you can second saturday we are open let's say you know there's a there's a bucket that's outside a bin that's outside the food pantry which is located behind the high school you can always drop it drop your food bag there you know during that time but we're also open on the third saturday so so the second set is when the drive is and then the next week the food pantry is open itself at eight o'clock in the morning eight to ten so you can bring it by that time too so ok so there's an ongoing way to drop it off in the bin and we check it you know a couple times during the week to empty it out and then we will also be open to the net the third soldering from eight to ten so you can go up the food off that and so you can donate toiletries as well as as food about what about other kinds of things like the baby food for instance and diapers and stuff like that our population is more of the older group we and it has always been since one thousand nine hundred two is when i started the food pantry and we've never had a lot of babies and young families so we don't need the food pantry the the baby food or the diapers but more on the other end is  you know the dependence there's also ensure there's items food items that the older only population come in they can they need any sugar free items anything that you know if you're diabetic there are some specialty items you can think about that if you know if this is part of you know what you purchase if you're diabetic you can also get a couple of items for the food pantry that you know definitely help some so we have we have an collection i think because the weather is a little nice and you know for a lot of the carriers go on vacation i think that's probably why they come up with it's also sort of right past the holiday season and things are if they have a time when the pant the food pantry is a little lower on food than say around the christmas and thanksgiving holidays well it's actually a perfect timing because what we've had going on in the last five or six years is belmont service which is columbus day weekend on that monday and we get like two thousand bags of food donated then in december in the middle school has their annual food drive  they donate between five thousand to seven thousand items and the reason why i have that number is they count every single one and then then you know we have everyone uses the food pantry from january to may and what this does is it helps to replenish the shelves and in the past we're number of a little bit lower what was collected on on the letter carry food drive got us through to the end of summer but because our numbers have increased  you know each drive really only lasts about three or four months and then we're purchasing and we actually on a regular basis just purchase food from the you know the different organizations the stores we we have shoppers and they're very good at now getting the best deals and by purchasing you know in bulk to keep the shelves stocked are there any fresh food items during the summer i think well that during the growing season we've got there were winter harvest so we'll probably receive some lettuce and stuff that will come to worse in you know say may or june depending on how the the winter wise and then all through the whole season until november we work with an organization called boston area cleaners and what they do is they go to the different farms in massachusetts and they clean the product that the farmers can't sell so david can you tell us about some of the sponsors and i gather it's quite a long list of sponsors it's put on by the national association of weather carriers also sponsored by the united states postal service  and i believe the family circus they help us with the posters and the advertisements and there are quite a few others yes i gather that there was has nice sponsorship behind you know and and the pantry is is just you know everybody in belmont i'm sure knows about the repaired tree and wants to participate in some way or to support something that's doing such good work yeah when we have their first and third saturday of every month and that has been since we started from eight to nine thirty is pretty much the volunteer time and that those two days are open for anybody who during the summer any day of the times that we were open that you are available to help you know because everybody's on vacation so but people still use the food pantry during this house and then we've added a new day and that is the  has been run by the entire community there's it's all volunteer run there's no one paid my life has been hard thing yet and it's also supported by the community monetary only there's no government money supports the food pantry we haven't needed it the first three years we got a grant from project bread now after that from then on we've just been between the letter carrier for driving that started in you know right when we started in for us so they've continued to help us through the summers and then all of the different organizations the clubs the town groups the churches the individuals the kids would have birthday parties and instead of gifts they would ask people to donate to the food and table some of the kids have done drives where they do you know like you have the walk for hunger well what they'll do is the have the walk around  get sponsors to monetary donations and then what they'll do is take with their donations and go and purchase the food so this saturday there's also different times where the cub scouts have stood in front of the star market and you know they have they give you they give you a list as you're walking into the store and you just come back out with a couple bags from the list and you get into them and then they'll bring it over to the food pantry so i even had high school kids that we did in the summer that's great that's wonderful so are all you got to history we've got some sponsors and  participation and are not participating in the center of all of this being the seven paramount food pantry what else can we add to this so i get on a continuum of volunteers for that day usually what i do is they post it on the bulletin board for community service at the high school have the kids come this year i've been approached by the y m c a and they're looking for they were looking for something to help out on that day so the volunteers will do that i had one year we had all of the the maintenance guys from the school department took over the day and they helped out it was a great you know we had everybody had a great time doing now you know and so i had like eight guys there and they helped unload and sorted and you know everybody gets caught up in the so is there any way they can help with the letter carriers that's a pretty big job is a lot of the carrier is usually bring their own volunteers maybe a spouse or a family member but if anybody is really interested there are a few carriers who might not have anybody to walk with them so especially on a walking route would be nice to have you know the carrier would deliver the mail yes and the volunteer would actually pick up the bag and bring it back to put it in the i really don't have any place to put it right pick it up so a couple years i have took the push and i wish that around oh so some most of the roots have trucks which makes it a little easier if you drive to every house you can just collect the bag and put it in the truck but when you're walking with the volunteer would come in handy oh yeah i'm sure it would you know anyone one who would be yeah and you know as a person i was getting her mail and all the time and i think the post office is so wonderful anyway i think this is just such a great thing that you're you know if you want a little bit more curious about it then you know they can help but it's just it's a very simple it's just basically when you go in and you're buying whatever you're buying just buy two of ok you know if you're buying the fill out and buy two of and have one bag for the fo and one for for yourself and home and so it just sits in you know it's a simple thing just as long as it's not something that needs to be refrigerated right i mean we don't have that i mean we have a refrigerator but it's just a regular household to see can we thank you now if you can sync up that we haven't covered i just want to emphasize the fact that you know that the letter carriers in belmont have been so tremendous and so helpful in supporting the food pantry and doing this year in year out you know there's been some years where it's it was raining so hard i gave up wearing my ring road and they're out the delivering the mail and taking up the you know the food that you know they're picking up the food and bringing it to the food pantry so it's tended their day yes so you know it's just you know as you you know bump sustained us over the summer so that it's definitely helped out so we haven't had to purchase as much food i mean because during the summer there's no there is no other drives this no other way of coming in and so in the earlier years that we would have to go and purchased food to keep the shelves stocked and you know we're up to two hundred people a month using it and they're all belmont residence so you know basically you're supporting your neighbor and that's a plastic bags the smaller ones the trash bags and you know with the gutter not all different yeah decorations there's one right there is there is one resident in town who she just loves to delivering anywhere so you know six o'clock maybe even beyond six o'clock ok so you know as long as it's out there most people know when the mailman arrives or but i might not get the same mailman so if you know when your mailman might come than have it out there and ready and we'll be right we'll be glad to take it wonderful so and they've helped out to i think you know any any roots that got route the drivers gold around to a truck drivers go around to the different routes and try to you know pick up whatever they see so it's you know they do the best they can say and you can i think people and get it so don't don't feel that you have to save it for your particular letter carrier because it's going to end up in the same place ok that's good to know to you all right  really and i said this is like old home week down because you know i've been doing it just as long as they have you know well it's very much a community thing and it needs to more aware of being a community and caring for each other and making sure that you don't have neighbors who are or community members who are not getting food yes and i mean it's a it's it is you know just exactly like you said is that even though the letter carries don't live next door to us  there in our neighborhood they're part of our allies every single day saturday was a week so you know they are you know definitely a part of our community and it was their decision and their choice to start this live in one night in the ninety's to help need of the food pantry then the best time to come is on a tuesday evening where the tuesday nights they're open and just bring them with you bring them down help them you know to so it's not so overwhelming for them but you know the food pantry is for the belmont residents and it's really important that you let your you know help your neighbor out and let people know that it's there to help and it's not the first couple times it is you know hard and they need to have support with someone that's helping them to bring to me what it was the time that it's open on tuesday night i do see nights at five thirty to six thirty and you do need to bring proof that you live in belmont so you know i because then you'd i'd actually it's already time consuming just doing what what is needed to to keep it open so it's just showing that you live in belmont and if you're in line then you are in need so this is behind the high school yes and it's again five thirty to six thirty on tuesday august second and fourth tuesday i think five thirty to six thirty to six thirty second and third tuesday second fourth his second and fourth from now on saturdays is the first and third saturday eight thirty to nine thirty and all of this information is what is on your website yes yeah ok so i think we've covered everything that ok so thank you both for being here thank you for having us for everything for watching and until next time stay tuned to the media center and find out what's going on