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Delivery

While delivering food at Project Northeast’s food pantry, members of Boy Scout Troop 21 and Knights of Columbus Cargill Council 64 show off some of the food they collected at the two groups’ March 14 combined food drive held in Putnam for the local, nonprofit social service agency for the needy.  They collected 340 pounds of food and $140 in cash. Photo: John D. Ryan

 

PUTNAM — “For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat  Those familiar words from the Gospel of Matthew sum up the results of the recent food drive in Putnam, a food drive that filled the nearly empty shelves at Project Northeast2, which runs one of the region’s non-profit, nondenominational, private food pantries for the needy.

“We’re able to help people now,” said Project Northeast’s Director, Fr. Richard L. Archambault of Putnam.  “Our shelves are full.  We’re very grateful.” 

Archambault said the March 14 effort raised $140 in cash and collected 340 pounds of nonperishable food.

A ministry of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich Project Northeast’s office and pantry is in two small basement rooms at St. Mary Church of the Visitation. They provide non-perishable food and financial help for utilities, but only when they have food and money available from donations.

Members of Putnam’s Boy Scout Troop 215 and Knights of Columbus Cargill Council 646 spent March 14, at the Cargill Council Hall on Providence Street collecting food, personal care items and money for Project Northeast.  Meanwhile, another work crew collected food donated to the pantry by generous customers just down the street at Putnam Supermarket

The two organizations came together on March 14 in the person of Peter A. Lombardo of Putnam, who is both Troop 21’s Scoutmaster and one of Council 64’s Past Grand Knights.

Founded in 1995, Troop 21 is chartered to St. Mary Church of the Visitation in Putnam. Founded in 1892, Cargill Council 64 is made up of over 200 local Catholic men and their families. The council covers Putnam, Pomfret, Woodstock and parts of surrounding communities, in the areas served by St. Mary Church and Most Holy Trinity Church in Pomfret.

This food drive is just the most recent event in Archambault’s long life of serving the poor.

“I was part of a family of nine kids, growing up in North Grosvenordale,” he said.  “We had great parents; they taught us to share and to care for people who were less fortunate than we were.”

That call to help the less fortunate eventually led the 85-year-old lifelong Roman Catholic priest to start Project Northeast in 1978. “I was a pastor of a parish in Mystic at the time,” he said. “They were great people there, but I had always been inspired to work for the poor.”

A three-month sabbatical, followed by discussions with then-Bishop of Norwich Daniel P. Reilly, led Archambault to start the non-profit, nondenominational ministry in August of that year. Today, he said Project Northeast serves about 150 local families a month, providing temporary help with food, utilities and other basic necessities for any needy people throughout the towns from Plainfield to the Massachusetts border. Although it’s part of the Norwich Diocese, it’s supported almost entirely by donations.

“I’m happy as a priest,” Archambault said. “I meet real people every day and do what God put me here to do.”

However, he said running the social service agency has many challenges, particularly during the continuing recession. He said the harsh winter had left the pantry nearly empty, while they’ve had to cut back, for the moment anyway, on the some of the financial help they can give.

 “The more we get in donations, the more we can do for people,” Archambault said.

“In this economy we know there’s a real need right here,” said Cargill Council Grand Knight Matthew R. Frederick a Brooklyn resident.  “Just from talking to people around here anybody can tell that money is tight and local people are really suffering. We’re Knights; we can’t just sit back and wait for somebody else to do something.  We saw a need and tried to fill it.”

Although the drive is over, Project Northeast still needs help.  Checks may be mailed to: Project Northeast, 81 Church St., Putnam, CT 06260.  Donations of non-perishable food and money may also be left at: Joseph’s Jewelers, 153 School St., Putnam; and 158 Main St., in Danielson.