As the pandemic hit, people stayed at home and increased their food purchases from grocery stores. Increased demand resulted in shortages of some items. This affected our Food for Kids(FFK) weekend food program’s ability to source items. For instance, The Country Hearth store, our bread supplier, used to resell bread that was pulled by groceries when it neared its expiration date. With food supply shortages, there were no loaves of bread expiring so the Country Hearth store closed. As a result, we had no bread supplier for our weekend food program.

The FFK team had to pivot quickly to find someone else willing to supply bread for $1 per loaf. Judy Spiegel, a FFK co-chair, related that “the situation was very difficult as many calls I made were never returned or stores were not interested.” Finally, the Knollwood Dollar Tree responded to Judy’s request. The manager, Brien Martin, was eager and willing to work with us. He is in the photo with Mike, a worker who packs our bread.

As with any new relationship, there are always adjustments to be made. While the Dollar Store is closer than the former store to our warehouse where food is packed weekly, the order, payment, and pick-up processes changed. Adding complexity and an additional challenge to the new relationship, the quantity of food orders from the schools we serve varied greatly week to week based on the students they could reach. This variability made it difficult to know how many loaves to preorder for the following week. 

A positive outcome from the supplier change is that the loaf of bread is now fresher and has a longer shelf life. It is also larger in size.

Each week a driver is needed to take the boxes to be filled with bread to the Dollar Store and wait while the bread is packed. Because the loaves are larger than those from the previous supplier, a large car is needed to transport the boxes of bread each week. If you would be interested and able to help pick-up the bread from Dollar Tree in Knollwood Mall and transport it to our warehouse, please contact Debbie Eng at deng5452@yahoo.com for more information.

Thank you to the FFK co-chairs and team members for managing through the challenges that the pandemic threw at them. Because of your efforts, students and families are able to focus on learning instead of where to get food.