To the editor: CAFC shop and food shelf need volunteers

The Chester-Andover Family Center is looking for volunteers for both the Thrift Shop and Food Shelf.

The Food Shelf needs folks to help with gleaning and processing produce during the summer and fall. Times and places to be determined. You are welcome to help once or several times.  For more information, please leave a message and your phone number for Sandy at the Family Center at 802-875-3236 or stop by the Food Shelf on Fridays between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

If you are interested in volunteering at the Thrift Shop, just stop by when the shop is open and pick up an application form.  The center’s mission is to “provide a helping hand to persons and families in need.”  Volunteering at the center is an opportunity to assist residents in Chester and Andover, possibly your neighbors, who are having to struggle to in this economy. Here’s a chance to give back to your community. Who knows when any one of us may have to ask for such assistance for our family.

CAFC provides financial assistance to Chester and Andover residents who are struggling to make ends meet.  The money you spend purchasing items in the Thrift Shop is used to support the Food Shelf and financial assistance program; there are no paid staff at the center.

During 2014, the center responded to the following requests for assistance:

• 36 electric bills totaling $6,536;
• 25 fuel bills totaling $8,875;
• eight rent bills totaling $1,175;
• four telephone bills totaling $332;
• 40 gas cards ($25 each) totaling $1,000; and
• one bill for $156, with a total financial assistance paid of $18,076.

And lastly, if you are a gardener and find yourself with extra produce, please consider sharing it with the center’s Food Shelf.  Deliveries would be appreciated on Wednesday afternoons and Thursday mornings 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Thrift Shop hours are: Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday, 1 to 7 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Food Shelf hours are Thursday 1 to 6 p.m. Fresh produce pick up is Friday 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Food Shelf recipients may come in every Friday for produce. Here’s how to reach the Center: 908 VT Route 103 South (P.O. Box 302), Chester, VT 05143, 802-875-3236, email: cafc302@gmail.com, and website www.chester-andoverfamilycenter.org Please “like us” on Facebook.