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Health & Fitness

Madison Community Services Food Pantry Update

Madison Community Services Food Pantry Public Information

 

The Madison Community Services Food Pantry is maintained by dedicated volunteers, and relies upon donations from the Churches, Civic clubs, local businesses, and N2N. 

Rental space is maintained in Orchard Park on 50 Orchard Park Road and is open for food and essential household supplies on Wednesdays. During the growing season, hundreds of pounds of fresh vegetables are donated by the Bauer Park Community Gardeners under the “Madison looks after its own” program. The objective is to provide food and those essential household and children supplies as a supplement to persons and families in difficult circumstances.  

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At this time, the weekly intake of clients is over to 200, with an average of three persons per client family. A weekly home delivery is also maintained for those who are home bound.  

Due to budget constraints, the Food Pantry has had to pull back from providing certain items, such as butter, but relies heavily on charitable donations of food from Madison businesses. Unlike the towns of Clinton or Guilford, you do not have to show need except for being a Madison resident; as a consequence no-one is turned away. 

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Due to this generous policy we have had a few negative comments from the community. We are often asked why we allow clients that drive a Lexus or a Cadillac to shop at the pantry. Madison Community Services  President, Cheryl T Campbell, replies "If you take a closer look at those luxury cars you will notice many are a decade old! During these rough economic times, even the once well off have found themselves overextended and in need of support. It takes a lot of courage to come forward and say that you need help. We pride ourselves on maintaing the dignity of our clients and have to trust that our ‘no one turned away’ policy is not abused.” 

To insure that MCS resources are used to the best of our ability it is most important to make sure that the MCS Food Pantry is servicing only the needy. 

Thank you, for your understanding and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Mitchell H. Cohan, co-director of the MCS Food Pantry

 

For More Information:

Visit:  http://madisoncommunityservices.org

Madison Community Services, Inc is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) compliant organization, independent of the Town of Madison, CT.  Our programs provide many services to the community including School Supply Assistance, Camp Scholarships, a Supplemental Food Pantry, Medical Transportation and Holiday Food Baskets.

We would like to thank all our volunteers, as well as the organizations and people of Madison for their continued support.

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