An email sent to 25 or 30 people has resulted in a “parade of pies” to be donated to the Peterborough Food Pantry just in time for the Thanksgiving season.
Gloria Morison, of Peterborough, is enrolled in Landmark Worldwide, a company headquartered in San Francisco that offers personal development programs. For her final class, she was tasked with designing a program and putting it into action.
Morison – who recently moved back to Peterborough with her husband after residing in Chicago for nearly three decades – said her original idea was to collect excess produce from local gardens and bring it to the pantry. She said she hasn’t given up on the idea, but that harvest season is over, meaning it’s too late to implement the project this year.
In search of another idea, Morison met with the food pantry’s director Chris Mann.
“What types of things do you need right now?” Morison asked Mann.
Mann said the pantry puts together Thanksgiving bags for residents in need, and while they’re filled with turkeys and other classic fixings, there are no pies.
Morison set out to fix that through one simple email detailing her journey. Now, she has about 18 people who are promising pies. One person told Morison she would donate 12, and another said they would bring six.
“I don’t know how many we will have yet,” Morison said on Tuesday afternoon. “Maybe 50 to 75 pies. All from that one email.”
She said some people who have offered to donate weren’t even aware of where the food pantry was located.
“And now we have a parade of pies,” Morison said.
Morison said giving feels good.
“It’s helping me feel very connected to the people I have met since we moved, and the Peterborough community at large,” Morison said, adding that there’s a network of people who need help and others who can provide that support.
Anyone can take part, Morison said, noting the pantry prefers store bought pies rather than home baked ones. She said pies can be dropped at the pantry on Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to noon.
