Project FEED is a food pantry which resides in the basement of Woodfords UCC Church. Clients get emergency food every three months once they have a referral from a social service agency. The pantry is open every afternoon from 1 p. m. to 3 p. m. and "yes" the number of clients is up -- 65% in the past three years.
Members of our church bring non-perishable food each week and place it in the red cart in the foyer, provided by Hilda and Don Nicoll, long time supporters of the pantry. Many of our members work at the pantry: managing the food and volunteer operations, delivering the food, restocking the shelves, working in the afternoons serving the clients, buying food and supplies for the pantry and serving on the Board.
An average week sees over 45 clients with family sizes from 1 - 8 come to the pantry. That has meant that around 120 paper and plastic bags were used each week to hold all of their groceries.
One day a client couple arrived with their own reusable bags. This was inspiration for our summer 2009 Share the Plate contribution, which was used to provide many clients with such a bag. When the client receives the bag, he or she is encouraged to use it for purchases and also urged to bring the bag back, if and when they return to the pantry. Through our Share the Plate we are helping people with their food needs and the environment by saving many paper and plastic bags. The pantry's ultimate goal is a complete turnover to 
reusable bags.
In the spring of 2010 congregational members brought their food contributions in a reusable bag, which was part of their contribution to the pantry and its clients. This action took place on the Sunday closest to Earth Day. As a consequence we contributed 96 full reusable bags of food to the pantry. We repeated this collection in 2011. Not only that, the congregation selected Project FEED as a "Share the Plate" netting the pantry over $1200 to help replenish its shelves.
In addition starting in 2011, we have added fresh farm produce to the picture thanks to cooperation with New Beat Farm, Woodfords Congregational Church, and Whites Memorial Seventh Day Adventist Church. See the report linked in the column to the right. This has been facilitated by one of our members, as well.
