Acord News
Pantries face new challenges, come together
By Jesse Poole Gordon College News Service
Published by The Salem News Tue Feb 22, 2011, 12:33 AM EST
HAMILTON — Acord Food Pantry may be losing some storage room and workspace but not its spirit of serving the North Shore community.
After the death of the former building owner, Harbor Light Community Partners (HLCP) of Beverly purchased the building where Acord now operates. It plans to install four affordable apartments, one of which will be handicapped-accessible.
The change will cramp the pantry's storefront-size space but will not affect the number of people Acord is serving, according to Deby Baker, who has worked as its part-time managing director since May 2010 and is Acord's only paid employee. [Click to view full article]
Boys have a swill time at Acord: Student volunteers compost expired food donations
Published June 2, 2010 by the Hamilton Wenham Chronicle
Hamilton-Wenham — Acord Food Pantry held a postal carrier food drive last month. Deby Baker, manager of the nonprofit operation, said the event was a success and that the organization's shelves are nearly full right now and should remain that way for the next couple of weeks.
"The community has been so generous," said Baker, who took on the role of manager on May 10. "We are fortunate to be in a community where people are so giving."
Although the event was a success, the food pantry did receive a sizeable amount of expired items, which cannot be used. In the past, such items these were simply thrown into the trash, but thanks to a group of local students, these items will be composted. Six seventh-grade boys from Miles River Middle School — Matthew Donnelly, John Henry Bahr, Tim Ciriello, Sam Petri, Ryan Horrigan and Ricky Nardella — volunteered to go through all of the expired items and empty the contents of each, separating the actual food product from its packaging. This is an essential step in the composting process, but not a necessarily a pleasant one.
"The smell is definitely the worst part," Donnelly said. [Click to view full article]