Last week I visited the food pantry, as I do about once a month. While I was there, the phone rang several times, mostly about fuel needs. Bags of groceries, ready to go, lined the tops of every available surface and I remembered when an entire room was taken up with Christmas boxes for dozens of Windham families. I also remembered that there are so many families using the food pantry now that they have had pick-up times divided up – the lines were so long.

When I asked Madeline Roberts, who operates the Windham Food Pantry and Clothes Closet, how things were going, she told me she’s seeing at least eight new families each week at the pantry – that’s eight families who have not been there before. Each week. To me, that is a pretty good indication of what the economy is truly like in Windham, as well as state-wide.

Most of the new clients are not old folks like me, but younger families.

It’s hard for some of us to believe that a food pantry is necessary in a town like Windham, where the population in 2000 was 15,000 and the median (half over, half under) household income was $46,500.

In 2000, there were about 5,500 households, averaging more than 2 1/2 people per household. Only 35 percent of the households had children 18 or under living with them.

Statistics are revealing, but real life situations show the whole story. The need for fuel, food, warm clothing – it grows daily.

The Clothes Closet, a free resource for Windham residents in need, is gearing up for spring. They’re expecting many new clients and could use donations of children’s spring and summer clothing, all sizes from 0 to 16. Donations of clean clothing can be dropped off any day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Roberts and her volunteers at the food pantry are planning several fundraisers including a big yard sale on Saturday, May 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Last year this was a big success and raised several thousand dollars. She’s collecting items of all kinds (except clothes) to be in the sale.

If you have donations of household items, books, games, small furniture items, they can be dropped off any day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. They are planning to be part of the town-wide Summerfest June 21, and will have a table there, too. All funds realized from these events will be used to purchase food items for the food pantry to help meet an ever-growing need.

You can support this much-needed resource for Windham by shopping at the yard sales, donating items that can be used (food or clothing) or financially, by mailing a check to Windham Food Pantry, c/o Town Hall, 8 School Road, Windham, ME 04062.

See you next week.