Super Sunday helps stock food shelf
Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf volunteer Tricia Gelineau of Essex helps weigh and count 1,863 pounds of food donated by South Burlington families. The food was collected in the 2nd Annual Super Bowl Sunday Food Drive. PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Monty
By Lynn Monty, Free Press Staff Writer • Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sunday a few South Burlington families gathered enough food for The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf to feed 25 families for five days.
The 1,863 pounds of food collected from their neighborhoods capped the second annual Super Bowl Sunday Food Drive that Nancy Scagnelli has organized with her family.
“Super Bowl Sunday is an exciting day,” Scagnelli said Monday. “People are in a party spirit and are feeling generous. The holidays have died down and the food shelves are running low. It’s a great time to knock on doors because this is just when they need it.”
Kelly Knudsen’s family helped the Scagnellis collect food last year and this year they were joined by five more families. Last year a little more than 2,000 pounds of food was collected, but collecting was a challenge this year with the heavy snow. “There was so much snow we couldn’t reach some doors,” Knudsen said. “Not everyone had shoveled out and it was difficult.”
Her daughter, Megan Knudsen, 8, didn’t mind the snow. She said the highlight of this year’s drive were the snowball fights in between collecting at houses. She said she wishes she could collect the food more than once a year.
Food shelf volunteer Tricia Gelineau of Essex helped Scagnelli and Knudsen as they unpacked the food from their minivans, Monday. Gelineau filled blue bins with about 50 pounds of food, weighed each one and loaded them on a rolling pallet to be wheeled from the loading dock into the food shelf in Burlington.
“Drives like these help people get involved in community service,” Gelineau said. “This time of year donations are down and we need to do everything we can to help families.”
Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf director Rob Meehan estimated the donations would provide a five-day supply of groceries to 25 families.
“We are so grateful to volunteer food drive coordinators who help those most in need during these hard winter months,” Meehan said. “It’s a real grassroots way to raise awareness and needed food.”
Scagnelli said, “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s so exciting and the joy it brings … seeing the children run from house to house. This is something we are just going to have to continue to do every year.”
More families want to join in the fun next year, said organizers.
“We will be expanding to more neighborhoods,” Knudsen said. “It’s a fun way to give back to our community and doesn’t require a lot of planning. The word is out about our Super Bowl Sunday Food Drive and more people want to help.”
Scagnelli said food shelf volunteer Bob Maritano of Winooski trained her crew and provided them with supplies like signs and bags for the collection effort. “He is amazing and the people in our community are amazing,” Scagnelli said. “The feeling of good will spread when people join together like this to do something good.”
