We are thrilled to announce that Peter Grey, the founder and President of Bedford Community Table/Pantry, Inc., was named one of 26 Myra Kraft Community MVPs by the New England Patriots Foundation. This award, which included a $5,000 grant, recognizes Peter's many years of volunteer work and the impact he has had on improving the quality of life for many in the local area. Peter and the other award winners were honored at a luncheon at Gillette Stadium featuring Bob and Josh Kraft, Andre Tippett, Joe Andruzzi, Jerod Mayo and Tom Brady. For the full scoop, see this press release from the New England Patriots as it appeared in the Bedford Citizen.

Thanks to all who provided and enjoyed our free community dinners this year. Our volunteers are taking a well-deserved break for the summer. Dinners will start up again in the fall, with the first on September 18, 2014. Menu information will be available a few days before. Community dinners are open to everyone. We hope to see you then!

Here's a press release from our friends at the Bedford Rotary. They're encouraging participants to bring food donations for the Bedford Food Pantry, too!

Bedford Rotary Pay It Forward Meals for Haiti Event Sign Up is Open!

Meal Packaging Event set for April 26^th at Middlesex Community College

March 15, 2014 – The Rotary Club of Bedford announced today that volunteers may begin signing up for the opportunity to help package over 100,000 meals for Haiti.  The food packaging event will be held between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM on Saturday, April 26^th at Middlesex Community College in Bedford.  The online signup can be found at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050F4EADA92AA75-payitforward2.

At last year’s inaugural event, the town held a 2-hour, 15,000 meal packaging event on a Thursday evening.  “The response was tremendous!” said immediate past President Pete Colgan.  “Based on the enthusiasm for the idea, we’re significantly raising the bar this year.”  The club has collected over $20,000 so far – enough to package over 100,000 meals.  “With about a month to go, we are still seeking sponsorships large and small” said Linda Cargiuolo, co-chair of the event.

“To package 280,000 meals will require us to raise over $70,000 and schedule 2,300 volunteer hours during the one-day, eight-hour event,” said Cargiuolo.  “It’s a daunting challenge, and we’re going to need help from everyone – school kids, senior citizens, local businesses, church groups, sports teams, town employees, and the list goes on and on.  The fact that we’ll need so much help will, we hope, really bring us together as a community.”

Stop Hunger Now is the organization that will be arranging the logistics for the packaging and distribution of the food.  “They do the hard work,” said Rotary President Margarita Kaliviotis, “of organizing the ingredients, packaging, and shipment of the meals.  All we need to do is organize the funding, the people, and the happy energy that will be required to pull this off.”

Those interested in learning more should with www.bedfordmarotary.org/payitforward.cfm, contact the Bedford Rotary at Bedford.rotary@gmail.com, or call Linda Cargiuolo at 978-500-2378.