New Williston food shelf opens in unlikely home

November 15, 2008

By Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Staff

WILLISTON — This is an unlikely place to find a food shelf. Outside, parking lots are full of cars carrying consumers ready to lay down $8.50 a ticket at the movie theater, $20 a plate at a restaurant, $1,000 for a high-definition TV at the electronics store.

Up the stairs and down the hall is a brand-new office more likely to fit a lawyer or a mortgage broker. Instead of cubicles and desks, there are shelves full of macaroni and peanut butter, bottles of juice, packages of diapers.

Maple Tree Place, a Mecca of commerce surrounded by suburban development, is home to one of the state’s newest food pantries. As a result of the efforts of local resident Jill Lang, who was driven to establish a food shelf closer than Richmond or Burlington, the Williston Community Food Shelf held its official opening Saturday.

Town Clerk Deb Beckett, a member of the food shelf’s board, admits it hadn’t occurred to her Williston needed a food shelf when Lang came to her with the idea about six months ago.

“I was thinking, ‘Is a food shelf needed in this town?’ It just never crossed my mind,” she said.

After 25 eager people turned out for a planning meeting, she thought otherwise. “It was very clear that there was an urgent need.”

Williston isn’t alone among Vermont communities feeling the demand from families who need help filling the kitchen pantry. The newly christened Williston Community Food Shelf is among five to join the Vermont Foodbank just since October, Foodbank spokeswoman Judy Stermer said.

Food shelves across the state are seeing 25-30 percent more demand for food this year compared to last, she said.

Priscilla Perkins of Colchester made her first trip to the Williston Community Food Shelf on Saturday. As volunteers prepared for the grand-opening ceremonies, she selected items off the shelves. A single mother of a 4-year-old son, she said, “It’s kind of hard to get by.”

Since it opened Nov. 1 three days a week, the Williston food shelf has served 37 people. Lang said she expects a heavier flow once residents learn about it.

Much of the food came from local food drives or donations from area stores. As a member of the Vermont Foodbank for a fee of $35 a year, the food shelf is eligible to receive shipments from the Barre-based clearinghouse. Many of the member food shelves receive up to 70 percent of their goods from the Foodbank, said Joe Dauscher, the Foodbank’s network relations manager.

Dauscher visits food shelves throughout the state. Most of them, he said, are in the basements of churches, as in Hinesburg. Williston’s location in an office suite is unusual, he said; it might be the only food shelf in the state on a second floor.

A hand-written sign on the ground floor points visitors to the space above the Asian Bistro restaurant. A few months ago, even as enthusiasm grew for the food shelf, organizers didn’t have a location. “That was a huge obstacle,” Beckett said.

Maple Tree Place owner Inland U.S. Management donated the space — rent and utilities included — at least through the winter.

Inland was among those Lang thanked with a certificate at Saturday’s opening. Company Vice President Bill Parks noted the challenging economic times in his comments.

Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 651-4887 or thallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com

November 15, 2008

Press Room