6th Annual Claws For A Cause Supporting Our Food Pantry

02/04/2019

Council: 10020 - No. WINDHAM

Project Description:

On the Monday before Thanksgiving nature was not being kind – the start of eight inches of snow was falling and temps had dropped to 15 degrees. This did not stop the line queuing up at 8:00AM waiting for the doors of the Windham Food Pantry doors to open at 9:00AM as people waited for a basket of much needed food to make their Thanksgiving Day a little less stressful. People in need got to choose from a turkey, a capon or a ham slice, along with vegetables, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, rolls and a pie. In all 130 families were served.

The entire cost of the food that day was underwritten by the members and families of our Council. Starting with planning and sourcing the members of the council conducted on Saturday September 15th the 6th Annual Claws For A Cause Lobster Dinner. Fir six years now this dinner has supplied all of the funds needed for the Thanksgiving food baskets for the Windham Food Pantry.

Dinner planning begins a month in advance with members meeting to discuss all the logistics needed to complete this daunting task. Suppliers were needed for the lobster, corn, potatoes and all the items the Council needed to purchase to make the dinner possible. One member has a relationship with a lobsterman who sells the Council 135 lobsters at below his cost to land them. A local food market donates all the corn, potatoes, cabbage, onions, tomatoes and lettuce for the dinner.

Tickets go one sale about a month before the dinner and are sold after Masses and on the phone. Notices are placed in the local papers, a sign board at the entrance to the Church is lettered and flyers go in to the bulletin.

The day before the dinner members their families arrive to set up the hall at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and gather the equipment that will be needed to cook 100 lobster and 40 hamburger dinners. The day of the dinner Brothers and their families start arriving at 7AM and many stay until 7PM. Over 180 homemade desserts are donated by members and their families and laid out in a buffet – one of the highlights of the meal.

Potato salad and coleslaw is made every year by one of the members wife who is known for her excellent cooking skills. Lobster pots and grills are set up and a 90 gallon cooler is filled with 140 ears of corn. At 2PM people line up before the 4PM Mass to purchase any remaining tickets, At 5PM the doors open and the 120 plus people attending begin filling in the hall, grabbing their seat and their favorite dessert. Over 30 members and family members, including children as young as 6, begin serving deliciously prepare meals, filling water glasses and coffee cups. A 50/50 raffle is conducted usually by a member accompanied by some of the young people who help. The Director of the Windham Food Pantry, who is a Fourth Degree Knight, talks to the crowd for a few minutes to thank them for their support and explain how much this event means to people who are living on the edge.

Work continues long after the clean up of that night. Members help the Food Pantry shop for the things needed and help stock the shelves. The Sunday before Thanksgiving three members drive a donated refrigerated truck to Warren Maine where a local meat market provides the turkeys, capons and ham slices at cost to the Council. The truck is then driving to the Food Pantry that night and unloaded and the team works to stock the freezer. That Monday morning 10 members and families gather to put together the 130 food baskets and are there when the doors open at 9:00AM to help people select food and carry it to their cars.

In the last six years through tears, laughter and labor over 750 families in need have had a joyful Thanksgiving and not gone without because of the Brothers and families of our Council. May God continue to bless our work and those in need.