In an assembly line that has become a well-oiled machine, volunteers at Greenville’s St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry assembled all the fixings needed for a Thanksgiving dinner into laundry baskets on Saturday, ready to hand them out to 125 families.

With more than 30 volunteers putting together baskets, St. Vincent de Paul President Kevin Little said it’s a herculean task each year to prepare the baskets, including the last-minute addition of refrigerated items such as ice cream, cider and freshly made pies from New Ipswich Congregational Church. The turkeys are added only moments before handing off the baskets to people driving through the Sacred Heart Church parking lot.

Little said that the process is only so smooth because of the enormous amount of help.

“Many hands make light work,” Little said.

And it’s not just the volunteers on the ground on the day of the hand-off, Little said. There are many donations that go into making the Thanksgiving baskets possible – milk from Dollar General, butternut squash and apple cider from Washburn’s Windy Hill Orchard, discounts on tubs of vanilla ice cream from Shaw’s, artisan bread from Woodman’s and apples for the pies from Birchwood Orchard. Another volunteer army at New Ipswich Congregational Church made the pies.

It’s just a testament to how much people want to help, Little said, and this year, it’s needed more than ever, as the food pantry has seen an unprecedented increase in need over the last year-and-a-half. The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, which serves primarily residents from Greenville, New Ipswich, Temple and Mason, provides food for more than 50 families a week. In April of 2022, the pantry was providing about 2,400 meals per month. In recent months, it has been providing 20,000 meals monthly.

“It’s a sign of the times,” Little said, adding that projects like the Thanksgiving food basket can help ease that burden and let the holidays still happen. “It’s hard to ask for help. But that’s what we’re here for. Whoever it is, whatever they need, we try to help.”

Brenda Salmonson, chair of the Souhegan Lions’ Warm Clothing Drive, which was open during the hours people were picking up their Thanksgiving baskets, said that effort has also grown. Once only open for a single Saturday, this year there were four days for people to shop through donations, which were collected at all four towns St. Vincent de Paul serves, as well as from the Unique Boutique in Townsend, Mass.

The drive collects thousands of pieces of clothing of every type, including coats and winter clothing, sorted and laid out by gender and size in the Sacred Heart CCD building, spread out across three rooms.

“Last year, we helped at least 200 people. It was pretty high demand,” Salmonson said. “We have a variety, everything from swimsuits to fur coats and Halloween costumes.”

The food pantry isn’t the only aspect of the St. Vincent de Paul’s holiday efforts that has seen a major increase in need. Sue Asel, the “Mrs. Claus” of the pantry’s Holiday Gift Giving, said the effort to coordinate collecting gifts for identified families in need has also seen a big spike in participants this year.

“Right now, we have about 111 children, from about 50 or so families,” Asel said.

That compares to last year’s effort, which provided gifts for a total of 35 children.

“We have families who lost their jobs, and there will be no Christmas – some of the things they’re wanting are very simple, like socks and a sweatshirt,” Asel said. “They have very basic needs. It might be super-simple gifts, or it might be a couple of toys. The joy that we see on their face when they pick up the gifts is so amazing. It’s why we do it.”

Asel said the community is always eager to help with the effort, often with slots to purchase gifts for a child or even a whole family filling up within hours after posting to social media.

“The need is so much bigger this year,” Asel said. But, she said, despite the need tripling, the community has not faltered. After posting the ages and wish lists of families on Facebook, community members had filled slots to purchase gifts within 2 1/2 days, Asel said.

“And there’s still people asking, ‘How can we help?’” Asel said. “The community is just amazing.”

Asel said though the sign-up period for Holiday Gift Giving is over for St. Vincent de Paul, it will use excess donations to purchase Amazon gift cards and to have a gift table for those who qualify but were too late to sign up for the official gift-giving.

The Sacred Heart St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry is most in need of coffee, tea, toilet paper, tissue products, pet food and canned ravioli and SpaghettiOs or similar canned goods. The pantry is open every Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., or Monday through Friday by appointment. It is located behind the Sacred Heart Church at 15 High St. in Greenville. For an appointment, call 603-878-0518. Walk-ins are welcome. Food donations can be dropped off at the pantry during operating hours or the Sacred Heart Church office.