Julie Lemire of Wilton is exploring her town, refreshing her mind, and raising money for those impacted by the coronavirus in her community.
Lemire, a first grade teacher at Florence Rideout Elementary School, has organized a fundraiser where she has committed to walking all of Wilton’s roads and streets over the summer, in return for pledges that will be donated to Wilton Cares, which assists with coronavirus relief in town, and the Open Cupboard Food Pantry, which serves Wilton and Lyndeborough.
The idea came to her, appropriately enough, on a walk.
“I do a lot of walking around my house, and I’m an avid hiker. Being at home for the last three months, and being forced to stay local, I thought of something I could do to give back to my community, which I haven’t been able to do,” Lemire said.
Used to being heavily involved in the school community, and now forced to be behind a screen for her working day, Lemire said she’s felt the mental toll of it all. Walking is one of the ways she de-stresses, she said. It reminds her of when she was a child, growing up in Whitefield, New Hampshire, when she could walk or bike to just about any destination in town.
That’s when she decided to really explore Wilton – where she’s lived for 16 years, but never really slowed down enough to get to know the town.
“Seeing things at a slower pace is a different experience. You notice people’s yards, the flowers, the scenery. Wilton is a beautiful place, with a lot of scenic roads, and it has a lot to offer anyone who wants to explore it,” Lemire said.
At the same time, she wants to give back to the community. She said her original goal was $1,000. But her GoFundMe page surpassed that within days, so she’s doubled that goal. To donate to Lemire’s cause, visit www.gofundme.com/f/walk-my-town/share.
Lemire said one of her goals is to help support the Open Cupboard Food Pantry, the pantry that serves Wilton and Lyndeborough. With unemployment due to the coronavirus high, many food pantry volunteers went into March expecting large increases in families coming through their doors. But in Monadnock’s small communities, that rush never really materialized, coordinators said, perhaps due to a combination of additional stimulus and unemployment funding from the state and federal government, and an outpouring of local support providing multiple options for families.
Pastor Charlie Boucher of the Antrim-Bennington Food Pantry, run by the Antrim Baptist Church, said he’s seen an increase of customers, by about 40 percent, though with their relatively small customer base, the numbers of people they’re serving still isn’t unmanageable.
Other programs, such as the Rindge Got Lunch program, which provides food for school children throughout the summer, said their numbers are stable when compared to last year.
The Open Cupboard Food Pantry, where Lemire’s fundraising will be going, also never saw a big influx – in fact, Roger Ladeucer, who runs the pantry, said their numbers of customers are actually down slightly when compared to pre-March.
He said some of their regulars may be getting assistance from other sources, such as the school free lunch program, Wilton Cares, or are relying on their stimulus or unemployment payments instead of the pantry.
Usually, he said, the pantry sees about 35 families a month. This last month, they provided food for about 15.
“Three months ago, I thought we’d be buried and scratching for all the food we could get. But right now, we’re well supported donations-wise.”
The crisis does still leave its mark in other ways, however, volunteers said. In March, pantries struggled with the same shortages as members of the community, as panic-buying left grocery shelves short of staples like meat, an issue which still lingers due to issues with meat-packing plants. In times where there are items unavailable at the food bank, many pantries will rely on their local groceries as a back up, but many still have purchase limitations on scarce items, leaving stock buying for food pantries out of the question.
Gloria Morison, president of the board for the Peterborough Human Service Fund and Peterborough Food Pantry, said other parts of the state are seeing an increase in demand, and that has resulted in some strain on the local food bank.
Some local food pantries are requesting monetary donations at this time, due to the need to disinfect food donations.