Letter: “Sanitized” Report on Pantries Misses Point

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To the Editor:

Your June 3 article “Shoreline Food Pantries Consider Split” was objectively written, but too “sanitized”.

I feel you should have reported more thoroughly on the opinions of volunteers to whom you gave scant mention. They have the direct contact with the guests served and the knowledge of the way things have operated so well during the past 10+ years.

Ellen Rabin’s comments are heartless and strike me as seeking a structure whether the situation fits it or not. How very tidy. But it ignores the facts; the Old Lyme Food Pantry has been able to sustain the level of servicing 150 people (that’s actual not your 100 number) without financial strain and did so despite repeated budget cuts by the SSSKP.

No one goes to a soup kitchen or food pantry unless it is a necessity. Denying people the services that Old Lyme location has been able to provide within the budgeted funds and with dedicated volunteers because they do not fit in a tidy little geographic boundary is morally inexcusable and not consistent with the mission statement of the SSSKP.

Ellen Rabin should focus on fundraising if that is her issue, not increasing the hardship of the poor and contradicting the mission statement it is her job to uphold.

Steven A. Ross (former volunteer)
Old Lyme, CT