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Speaker 1: From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England

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Speaker 1: Weekend where each week right here we come together we

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Speaker 1: talk about all the topics important to you and the

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Speaker 1: place where you live. Thanks for tuning in again this week.

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Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Davis. When you're trying to tackle a major

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Speaker 1: systemic problem that impacts your whole neighborhood, sometimes you've just

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Speaker 1: got to get creative. For not just decades, but centuries

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Speaker 1: over GATHER, the team there has been doing just that.

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Speaker 1: They're leading the charge on the sea coast of New

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Speaker 1: Hampshire to make sure nobody goes hungry. Part of that

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Speaker 1: effort is a brand new community food center that they

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Speaker 1: just recently opened up. Executive director Anne Hayes is here

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Speaker 1: with us. Now we're going to talk about the center.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about their mission, their work. I'd like to

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Speaker 1: start actually with the fact that you know, GATHER has

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Speaker 1: pen around for quite some time. Centuries is nothing to

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Speaker 1: sneeze at here.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was started back in eighteen sixteen, so we're

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Speaker 2: coming up on two hundred ten years, which makes it

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Speaker 2: one of the oldest social service agencies in the country actually,

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Speaker 2: and it was started by women in Strawberry Bank, which

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Speaker 2: is sort of a historical part of Portsmouth to support

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Speaker 2: the families of fishermen when the men were out at sea,

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Speaker 2: and it continued along ever since, kind of morphing and

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Speaker 2: changing names and stuff, but in operation ever since and

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Speaker 2: up until about twenty fourteen, it was really kind of

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Speaker 2: more of a food pantry or food and other resources place,

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Speaker 2: but that was a spot that people would go to.

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Speaker 2: Starting in twenty fourteen we started adding things to that,

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Speaker 2: like our mobile market programming, our meals for kids, and

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Speaker 2: we've continued to do that over the last ten or

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Speaker 2: twelve years to get us where we are today, where

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Speaker 2: our mission is to provide innovative programs that build food

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Speaker 2: security and welcoming and dignify. So we try very hard

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Speaker 2: to do that in a lot of different ways, and

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Speaker 2: we can talk about those.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And I really appreciate that you're rooted

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Speaker 1: in New Hampshire history. I love the fact that this

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Speaker 1: came out of just a group of women looking around

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Speaker 1: the community and saying we can fix this problem, because

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Speaker 1: you know, it just goes to prove that food insecurity

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Speaker 1: has been an issue for centuries around here.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it has, unfortunately and continues to be.

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Speaker 1: Then that's the problem. You know, I'd really like to know.

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Speaker 1: With all the programs you have, obviously a lot of

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Speaker 1: people are really struggling to get by right now, tell

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Speaker 1: me a little bit about what you're seeing in that

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Speaker 1: part of your area.

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Speaker 2: Sure, we serve people from about one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 2: different cities in towns in New Hampshire and Maine, so

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Speaker 2: we have a pretty wide area that we serve. They

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Speaker 2: are more concentrated in the Greater Seacoast in some of

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Speaker 2: the communities Inland that touch on the sea coast, but

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Speaker 2: we do serve people from a wide swath of the

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Speaker 2: state and also into southern main And what we're seeing is,

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Speaker 2: you know, food insecurity is really an income versus expense issue, right,

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Speaker 2: So if you either don't make enough money or your

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Speaker 2: expenses are higher, then you're going to struggle to make

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Speaker 2: ends meet. And food is one of the places that

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Speaker 2: people can flex in a way that you can't flex

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Speaker 2: rent and you can't really flex your utility bills that much.

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Speaker 2: So people tend that's someplace a place that people tend

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Speaker 2: to cut back on first, or to seek support first,

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Speaker 2: because it can be one of the easier things to

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Speaker 2: seek support on. So what we're finding is with the

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Speaker 2: rapidly increasing cost of housing, with the increasing home heating costs,

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Speaker 2: with the increase in food prices, that we've seen is

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Speaker 2: that people are just getting really squeezed. And you know,

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Speaker 2: that's families with young children, that's seniors, unfixed incomes, that's

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Speaker 2: people who just don't have enough room in their budget

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Speaker 2: to save for a point in time when they might

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Speaker 2: have an emergency like let's say your car breaks down

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Speaker 2: and you don't have the money to get it fixed.

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Speaker 2: A health issue comes up, a job loss, you know,

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Speaker 2: all these things where people are at least temporarily and

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Speaker 2: sometimes longer term, faced with I just can't make ends meet.

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Speaker 2: What do I do? And that's when we see people.

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Speaker 2: It's just really challenging for people right now. And housing

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Speaker 2: on the Sea Coast and really across the country has

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Speaker 2: gone up a lot, and that tends to make it

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Speaker 2: a little bit more difficult and means that we see

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Speaker 2: a lot more people.

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Speaker 1: You're in New Hampshire and Maine, and there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of rural areas up in that part of New England,

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Speaker 1: a lot of rural communities, and I talk with a

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Speaker 1: lot of food pantries and food banks that are in

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Speaker 1: more urban areas for the show, but I'd really like

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Speaker 1: to know what you're seeing when it comes specifically to

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Speaker 1: rural families and people living in those less populated areas

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Speaker 1: where there's simply just not as many resources. What do

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Speaker 1: you seeing play out there right?

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Speaker 2: Well, interestingly, we also run something called the Secoast Food

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Speaker 2: Provider's Network, which is a network of about forty active

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Speaker 2: food pantries. Some you know, we are the largest one,

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Speaker 2: but they're you know, some can be only open a

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Speaker 2: few hours a week, only by appointment, things like that,

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Speaker 2: but they're important resources in the communities around here. And

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Speaker 2: I think the other thing that we find is there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of transportation issues and that's one of the

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Speaker 2: reasons why we started doing our mobile markets. So we

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Speaker 2: run about forty to forty five mobile markets every month

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Speaker 2: and it can stretch from Seabrook in the south all

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Speaker 2: the way up to Summrsworth and from Rochester to Raymond

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Speaker 2: and Farmington and these other more to your point rural

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Speaker 2: areas and less resourced areas and by bringing the food

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Speaker 2: to them, and we do it one of two ways.

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Speaker 2: We do it either with a sort of farmer's market

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Speaker 2: style set up. It's all free, but it's set up

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Speaker 2: in such a way that we put up tents and

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Speaker 2: tables and lots of fresh produce and milk and eggs

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Speaker 2: and proteins and stuff. Or we use our fresh food bus,

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Speaker 2: which we had outfitted by C ANDJ. You know the

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Speaker 2: bus line they helped us build out. Yeah, they were great.

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Speaker 2: They helped us build out a fresh food bus, you know,

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Speaker 2: taking a city bus, removing all the seats, putting in

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Speaker 2: seven refrigerators, three freezers, shelving and stuff. So our mobile

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Speaker 2: market bus driver can just drive right up to Lamprey

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Speaker 2: Health Center and Raymond and the folks who are being

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Speaker 2: served there can hop on the bus, do their shopping,

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Speaker 2: and then go on with their appointments at the health center.

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Speaker 2: So we try to bring our markets to either low

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Speaker 2: income housing areas or public spaces that are accessible by

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Speaker 2: public transportation, so people can get to us without having

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Speaker 2: to come all the way to Portsmouth to our pantry.

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Speaker 1: And I do appreciate that you're offering these people agency

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Speaker 1: because I think that it can be a very demoralizing

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Speaker 1: experience to go to a food pantry, especially if you're

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Speaker 1: somebody who is relatively new to being food insecure, and

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Speaker 1: it's demoralizing, frankly for everybody at times who is struggling

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Speaker 1: with food in security. But just that little effort of

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Speaker 1: giving people choice, of giving people the dignity and the

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Speaker 1: agency to provide what they need for their family, it's

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Speaker 1: got to make a whole world of difference.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we actually saw a lot of what you describe

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Speaker 2: back in October. We opened our new facility, Gather Community

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Speaker 2: Food Center and Portsmouth on October sixth, right after the

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Speaker 2: government shut down, and a lot of folks in our

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Speaker 2: area who might have worked at the naval shipyard and

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Speaker 2: stuff or suddenly without paychecks, and so for a lot

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Speaker 2: of them, it was the first time that they ever

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Speaker 2: came to a food pantry and we were so pleased

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Speaker 2: to be able to what is now you know, a

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Speaker 2: nice bright light you know, light filled, well laid out

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Speaker 2: sort of mini grocery stoes what we have and people

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Speaker 2: can pick and choose what they will feed their families.

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Speaker 2: And I think choice is really important both from an

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Speaker 2: agency standpoint and also from a food waste standpoint, because

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Speaker 2: if you hand people a standard box of food, if

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Speaker 2: it's got stuff in there, that they don't know what

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Speaker 2: to do with it, or that their family won't eat,

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Speaker 2: or they have dietary restrictions. That makes it really hard.

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Speaker 2: And we're able in our food pantry to provide you know,

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Speaker 2: dairy free options, gluten free options, hall all meats, kosher.

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Speaker 2: You know, we do get some things in that will

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Speaker 2: allow us to meet those needs. And we always provide

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Speaker 2: choice for people. They can pick and choose what they

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Speaker 2: will want to take home to their families, which I

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Speaker 2: think is really important. And dignity is a huge part

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Speaker 2: of what we do. We work with, you know, a

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Speaker 2: ton of volunteers every day, sixty volunteers to run every

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Speaker 2: single day to run our operations along with our paid staff,

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Speaker 2: and those folks are are trained to welcome people, treat

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Speaker 2: them with dignity and respect and make sure that there

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Speaker 2: isn't a stigma and there isn't that feeling of being

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Speaker 2: less than when they come into our space.

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Speaker 1: You also mentioned food waste, and I really do appreciate

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Speaker 1: all the work you're doing to try to cut down

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Speaker 1: on food waste, and I'd love to hear a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about those efforts. You're gleaning, you're gardening, you're

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Speaker 1: cooking for Community program. There's just so many.

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Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, no, we love that part of what we

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Speaker 2: do as well, So we take it a lot of

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Speaker 2: different ways. We take food that would otherwise go to

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Speaker 2: waste and turn it into meals and groceries and other

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Speaker 2: things for people who need it. So, if you look

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Speaker 2: at food waste in this country, I believe it's somewhere

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Speaker 2: between thirty five and forty percent of all food that's

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Speaker 2: grown is wasted. And so to recapture that. If you

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Speaker 2: if you look at a little pie chart from Refed,

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Speaker 2: who tracks food waste, seventy five percent of that waste

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Speaker 2: happens at the consumer level. So we're going to be

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Speaker 2: working more on a little bit of an education when

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Speaker 2: it comes to that. But the other twenty five percent

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Speaker 2: happens in food retail stores, grocery stores, manufacturers, distributors, farms

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Speaker 2: and so on. And so what we try to do

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Speaker 2: is have programs that address each of those. So we

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Speaker 2: have our Fresh Rescue program, which we work with the

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Speaker 2: Food Bank on to rescue food from grocery stores so

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Speaker 2: it doesn't go to waste. We have developed a program,

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Speaker 2: this is a fairly new program, in less than two years.

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Speaker 2: The last almost two years, we've been running this program

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Speaker 2: called Seacoast Waste not and our director of Programs and Strategies,

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Speaker 2: Tanya Marino, came up with this idea and won an

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Speaker 2: Innovator award at the state level for it. But what

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Speaker 2: we do is we try to notify manufacturers, distributors, food brokers, restaurants, caterers, cafeterias,

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Speaker 2: let them know that if they call us, we can

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Speaker 2: very quickly come and pick up food that would otherwise

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Speaker 2: go to waste and bring it back to our kitchens

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Speaker 2: and turn it into prepared meals, getting it out to

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Speaker 2: people who need it. And all of these folks, whether

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Speaker 2: it's a restaurant closing for the season or a hospital

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Speaker 2: cafeteria that have to make a certain amount of meals

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Speaker 2: every day, or a food manufacturer that has an extra

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Speaker 2: palette of Brussels spreads they don't know what to do with,

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Speaker 2: you know, those kinds of things. Farms that can't don't

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Speaker 2: have the staff to harvest everything in the field, so

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Speaker 2: we can take that too, and we can bring volunteers

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Speaker 2: to do it. So in each of these areas we're

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Speaker 2: able to take really wholes of nutritious food and provide

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Speaker 2: it to people who need it, and you know, the

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Speaker 2: chefs love it, the manufacturers love it because nobody wants

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Speaker 2: to throw away good food, and it really makes a

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Speaker 2: huge difference in what we can offer to our what

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Speaker 2: we call our members or our clients.

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Speaker 1: And honestly, they're not losing money. The money's already been

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Speaker 1: spent on the food, right, and so they get to

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Speaker 1: probably write off some of it in taxes. It's really

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Speaker 1: a win win we do.

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Speaker 2: You know, we do give them in kind donation receipts

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Speaker 2: and they don't have to pay to compost it.

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Speaker 1: Beautiful or have it all the way. It's a win

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Speaker 1: win just knowing that you are giving your community. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I can't even imagine you've got such incredible restaurants on

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Speaker 1: the seacoast, knowing that some of that great food is

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Speaker 1: going to people who really could just use a warm

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Speaker 1: meal at night, right.

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Speaker 2: And we've had people say to us, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: particularly helpful to our unhouse population to have a prepared

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Speaker 2: meal that's not frozen that they can eat. And also

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Speaker 2: our seniors in the community. We have a lot of

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Speaker 2: seniors living on fixed incomes and that have been squeezed.

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Speaker 2: There was one man who came up to me at

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Speaker 2: one of our community dinners. We have these first seniors,

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Speaker 2: you know, three course seated themed meals. It's a great

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Speaker 2: opportunity to bring seniors out and make sure they're not

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Speaker 2: so isolated and they're eating healthy. But he came up

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Speaker 2: to me and he said, I'm ninety one years old

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Speaker 2: and I can't cook for myself, and you all have

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Speaker 2: kept me alive. I come in every day and get

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Speaker 2: a couple of meals, and I get an extra one,

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Speaker 2: some extra ones for the weekend, and it has kept

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Speaker 2: me alive and healthy. And I was, you know, we

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Speaker 2: were all just like crying because it's just it's just

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Speaker 2: so meaningful, right if you can make that much of

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Speaker 2: a difference in someone's life, and otherwise that food would

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Speaker 2: have gone to waste. So it's a really great opportunity.

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Speaker 2: We love We love that program, are cooking for community program.

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Speaker 2: We were producing about ten thousand meals a month in

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Speaker 2: our new batch production kitchen. We believe that we can

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Speaker 2: probably produce two hundred thousand a year, two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand meals a year and thereby send it out

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Speaker 2: more like a lot of it goes out those meals

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Speaker 2: go out through our pantry market and a couple of

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Speaker 2: select bus markets, but we would really like to be

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Speaker 2: able to get it out more broadly because we know

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Speaker 2: at our mobile markets there's a lot of people who

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Speaker 2: could use that well.

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Speaker 1: Right, And of course, I mean, I love the fact

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Speaker 1: that you're there doing what you're doing, but I hate

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Speaker 1: the fact that you have to do it because there

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Speaker 1: is enough food. Every time I talk about food and security,

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Speaker 1: I try to make the point that there is enough food.

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Speaker 1: We just have to get it to the people who

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Speaker 1: need it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we need to provide support to people who

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Speaker 2: are producing the healthy food more than the unhealthy food.

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Speaker 2: But you know, we like, for example, we don't put

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Speaker 2: any limits on produce when people come to our markets.

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Speaker 2: We let people take as much of the fresh, healthy

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Speaker 2: food as they can use, rather than try and limit

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Speaker 2: them on that because we really feel like, we feel

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Speaker 2: very strongly that everyone should have a right to have

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Speaker 2: access to fresh, healthy food to feed their families, and

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Speaker 2: we're doing our best to make sure that happens.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk quickly about students, young people who are

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Speaker 1: dealing with food in security, because we hear a lot

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Speaker 1: about adults and families and younger children in schools. But

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Speaker 1: I feel like there's this middle ground of college students

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Speaker 1: and people in their early twenties who are out in

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Speaker 1: the world. They're doing their thing, they've left home, and

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Speaker 1: they are really struggling to get by. You've got the

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Speaker 1: Gather cafe at Great Bay. Tell me a bit about

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Speaker 1: this program.

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Speaker 2: That's a very cool program. I think. I love the

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Speaker 2: work we're doing with Great Bay there as a community college.

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, the estimates are maybe one in

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Speaker 2: four college students overall suffers from food and security, but

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Speaker 2: at the community colleges it's much closer to one and

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Speaker 2: two or even worse than that. So what we're what

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Speaker 2: we decided to do was to partner with Great Bay

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Speaker 2: Community College to run their cafe space. So Gather runs

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Speaker 2: that students with a student I d eats for half price,

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Speaker 2: and it's already not particularly expensive. You know, a six

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Speaker 2: dollars sandwich, but students get them for three dollars. They

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Speaker 2: can get a cup of coffee for about eighty cents,

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Speaker 2: I know, things like that. So we sell to students

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Speaker 2: at half price and the general public for a very

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Speaker 2: reasonable price, which helps support the student discounts, and then

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Speaker 2: we work with a college and if there are students

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Speaker 2: who are having a particularly difficult time, we can arrange

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Speaker 2: it so that they still swipe their card, but nothing

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Speaker 2: gets charged on their card, so they eat for free.

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Speaker 2: And the nice thing is that the students who have

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Speaker 2: gone through this. We had one young man from the

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Speaker 2: Ukraine who had come here and was really struggling, and

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Speaker 2: then over the course of the summer had gotten a job.

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Speaker 2: After a full year on that program of free food,

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Speaker 2: had gotten a job. And when he came back they said,

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Speaker 2: you know you can still be on this program. He said, no, no,

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Speaker 2: let someone else use that. I can pay for my

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Speaker 2: own way now. And you know I want to pay

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Speaker 2: for my own way, which you know, you love to

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Speaker 2: see that, right, like when somebody wants to pay it

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Speaker 2: forward in some way, and you know, step away from

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Speaker 2: that kind of sport when they can. And that's something

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Speaker 2: that we are really trying to focus on. Now that

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Speaker 2: we have a much larger space which allows us to

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Speaker 2: do a lot more programming, we've started to move to

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Speaker 2: a philosophy of both. We call it serve the line

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Speaker 2: and shorten the line. So serve the line by meeting

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Speaker 2: the immediate hunger need. That's all that food access work,

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Speaker 2: making sure that we are distributing the food to the

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Speaker 2: people who need it, while at the same time trying

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Speaker 2: to think about ways to get people to a place

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Speaker 2: of more financial stability so they don't need us anymore.

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Speaker 2: And you know, this line has been growing for a

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Speaker 2: long time, and we've got to figure out a way

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Speaker 2: to help people get out of that. So one of

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Speaker 2: our programs that we're about to launch next week is

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Speaker 2: called fresh Start Culinary Workforce Training Program, and what we're

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Speaker 2: doing there is following the model of an umbrella organization

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Speaker 2: called Catalyst Kitchens, which works with about one hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty different nonprofits across the country in this field, is

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Speaker 2: to work with people who are both low income and

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Speaker 2: have other barriers to employment, so they could have been

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Speaker 2: involved in the justice system, be in recovery, aging out

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Speaker 2: of foster care, housing insecure, any number of things that

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Speaker 2: might make them might make it much harder for them

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Speaker 2: to get a job, and we will put them have

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Speaker 2: them go through eight weeks of what we call life

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Speaker 2: skills and life skills, so hands on culinary training with

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Speaker 2: our chef instructor and then life skills coaching with our

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Speaker 2: life skills specialists, so things like everything from the classic

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Speaker 2: resume and interviewing techniques to things like how to show

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Speaker 2: up on time and dress appropriately for work, how to

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Speaker 2: work in a team, how to resolve conflict, how to

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Speaker 2: you know, all those kinds of things which are so

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Speaker 2: critical in maintaining a job. Will then place them in

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Speaker 2: a four week internship with one of our partners, because

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Speaker 2: we are partnering with a lot of restaurants and caterers

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Speaker 2: and so on the sea coast. Place them in a

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Speaker 2: four week internship which will then help them get a

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Speaker 2: longer term position so that they will have, you know,

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Speaker 2: as a prep cook or something along those lines. They

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Speaker 2: will be able to have a self sustaining job.

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Speaker 1: Has there been a lot of demand for this first

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Speaker 1: cohort of this program or is it just getting up

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Speaker 1: to speed.

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Speaker 2: We're just getting started. We will ultimately be able to

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Speaker 2: have we have a teaching kitchen that we've just built

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Speaker 2: that has twelve stations. We did not want to start

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Speaker 2: with twelve people because it's our first run and there

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Speaker 2: is the whole new thing for gather. Yeah. Yeah, but

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Speaker 2: you know, we're looking at five or six people probably

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Speaker 2: that we want to have in this first cohort, just

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Speaker 2: to make sure we iron out any of the kinks

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Speaker 2: before we fully launch. But I think, you know, we

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Speaker 2: hope that it will grow to that, and we'll be

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Speaker 2: offering four cohorts this calendar year in twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 2: and then we'll see how it goes.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm looking out on your website at these photos.

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Speaker 1: This is a gorgeous kitchen. I mean beautiful kitchen, aid mixers,

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Speaker 1: and everything's stainless steel, and it's got everything you could

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Speaker 1: possibly need. And all you need is literally just wanting

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Speaker 1: to learn. And that is a beautiful gift because people

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Speaker 1: don't want to necessarily be down on their luck. Nobody

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Speaker 1: wants to be, but sometimes they just need that little

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Speaker 1: boost and that little gift and somebody saying, hey, I

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Speaker 1: know you can do this, Come on and I'll help

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Speaker 1: you figure it out. This is it's an incredible opportunity

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Speaker 1: to learn some really critical life skills.

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Speaker 2: Right and it is a free program, so it's which

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Speaker 2: is fairly unusual in the culinary world. So you know,

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Speaker 2: it is really intended to help people like our members

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Speaker 2: who who need that extra boost and who want that

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Speaker 2: opportunity to change their lives, and that's why we're calling

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Speaker 2: it Freshnart.

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Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, So what do you need for donations?

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Speaker 1: What do you need for people to help you keep

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Speaker 1: this going? What can they do to help?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're trying to wrap up our capital campaign for

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Speaker 2: this space, and you can see on the website, which

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Speaker 2: is gathered a h dot org, you can see some

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Speaker 2: of the pictures of the space. We're still trying to

395
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Speaker 2: close out our eight million dollar capital campaign. So that's

396
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Speaker 2: a great place. If you want to be a part

397
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:53,439
Speaker 2: of something like that, that would be terrific. But it

398
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Speaker 2: takes us. You know, we leverage a lot of in

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Speaker 2: kind food donations. Our auditor tells us they're valued at

400
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,159
Speaker 2: about two and a half million a year for just

401
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 2: the food donations. We work with so many volunteers it's

402
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 2: like having an additional sixteen full time employees. So we're

403
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:15,160
Speaker 2: leveraging a lot of in kind food and time donations,

404
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 2: but we still need to raise about four million dollars

405
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,120
Speaker 2: a year to run our general operating so to pay

406
00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:24,600
Speaker 2: our staff, to pay for the food we do purchase,

407
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,320
Speaker 2: which is all the milk and eggs, and quite a

408
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 2: bit of the produce to make sure it's fresh. So

409
00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:32,399
Speaker 2: there are things that we need to spend money on

410
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 2: our vehicles and so on to take the food out

411
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Speaker 2: there and pick up what's available for donations. So, you know,

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Speaker 2: cash donations are really helpful to us, but we do

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Speaker 2: love our volunteers and we love seeing community members get

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Speaker 2: involved in food drives and things like that as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you've got a great list on your website

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Speaker 1: of what you need the most right now for winter

417
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,920
Speaker 1: coming into the spring, and this also includes personal care items.

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Speaker 1: We're talking diapers, we're talking usable bags, things that you

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Speaker 1: might not think about that you normally might not see

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Speaker 1: the food pantry.

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Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, we stop purchasing plastic bags because we felt

422
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,199
Speaker 2: like it was not great for the environment, and you know,

423
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 2: as part of our focus on food waste, we want

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00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 2: to also do other things that we can to improve

425
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,560
Speaker 2: things for the environment. So we sometimes get reusable bags

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00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 2: donated by you know, just people in the community, but

427
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:31,120
Speaker 2: also donated by companies and stuff, which has been really helpful.

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Speaker 2: We can always use those. Personal care items are really

429
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Speaker 2: important because they tend to be very expensive, whether it's

430
00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 2: hygiene products or you know, diapers, wipes, things like that formula.

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Speaker 2: All those kinds of things tend to add up for

432
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:48,959
Speaker 2: people and make it hard to make ends meet, so

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Speaker 2: we really welcome those kind of donations as well. And

434
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Speaker 2: we also provide pet food because we don't want people

435
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Speaker 2: taking the food intended for them and using it for

436
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,440
Speaker 2: they're pets. But we know how important pets are to people,

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Speaker 2: so we want to make sure we provide that as well.

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Speaker 2: So if that's of interest in people, that's also a

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Speaker 2: great place to donate, okay.

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Speaker 1: So Gatherne dot org is the website, and again you

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Speaker 1: can donate your time, your energy, your food, your money,

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Speaker 1: anything that you can do to help out the situation.

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Speaker 1: Social media, you're there as well, right we are.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, we're on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and so on,

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Speaker 2: so you can find us there as well.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Well, and thank you for all the work you're

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Speaker 1: doing for the people of New Hampshire and Maine, helping

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Speaker 1: everybody out when we really could just use a helping hand.

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Speaker 1: So thank you for the time and the energy and

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Speaker 1: all you do. And I hope that this winter and

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Speaker 1: into the spring you get everything you need and more.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's great to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Nicole, have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us

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Speaker 1: again next week for another edition of the show. I'm

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Speaker 1: Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio