Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan and Weymouth Mayor Robert Hedlund help deliver groceries to clients of the Interfaith Social Services food pantry.
QUINCY
As food was coming in the back door at the Interfaith Social Services food pantry, it was going out another door to be given to the area’s needy.
Among the crowd of volunteers at the bustling food pantry Thursday morning were Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan and Weymouth Mayor Robert Hedlund. The mayors were handling chores from stocking shelves to filling orders for the pantry’s clients in the next room.
The visit by the mayors was to help mark the organization’s 70th anniversary, said Executive Director Rick Doane.
They are also calling attention to a problem which cuts across municipal lines, he said.
“It’s about bringing awareness of hunger in our community,” said Doane.
Located at 105 Adams St. in Quincy Center, the pantry distributes 700,000 pounds of food each year. Some of the food is picked up from area supermarkets and stores and the rest comes from the Greater Boston Food Bank, he said.
Doane said the pantry receives 22,000 visits each year, with the average client visiting four times per year. The pantry serves 10 communities, with most of their visitors coming from Quincy, Weymouth, Braintree and Randolph.
“A family will fall on hard times and they’ll turn to us,” Doane said.
Hedlund said that on his last trip to volunteer at the pantry, the random person he was delivering food to was someone he knew.
He said it shows the agency is “reaching into the community that I serve and providing a good service.”
Both mayors said they brought some experience to the shopping task, loading fresh meat and produce as well as baked and canned goods into carts.
Sullivan said he frequently does the supermarket run for his family.
“It’s important for me to know the price of milk,” Sullivan said.
As for Hedlund, “I’m a single guy; I do my food shopping.”
Sullivan said he was impressed by “the sense of community” among the volunteers working at the shelter.
He said he hopes to bring his department heads over to the pantry to help out in lieu of their weekly meeting.
