For a little more than a year now, Stratford Public Library (SPL) has been quietly helping out those in need with their Snack Stop station on the library’s main floor. In December, they’re hoping you’ll be able to give them a hand with their work.
From December 2-8, SPL will host the Hungry Minds Food Drive to help keep the Snack Stop stocked up; inviting friends, family and patrons to bring in donations of non-perishable food items. Public Services Supervisor Shauna Costache said they’ve been running the Snack Stop since September 2023 after they noticed a growing number of people coming in and asking for more than just books.
“Some of the staff were like, ‘sure, here’s a granola bar’, so we were doing what we could to help,” she said. “We thought that if this was a need in town, we should find a way to formalize this so it’s not up to the discretion and wealth of individual staff.”
Costache said that once things got going, library staff noticed more kids from Stratford Intermediate School coming in and some students would watch as others ate. After doing a little research of her own, Costache began connecting some dots together.
“The need became particularly acute once we were fully open again (following the pandemic) on evenings and weekends because that’s when the community meals are all shut down and the food banks are all closed,” she said. “And I think a lot of people don’t realize that in Stratford you can only access food banks once a month. So we decided to have a food pantry here, but we called it the Snack Stop to help take some of the stigma away.”
In the early days of the program, Costache said they could get away with spending about $200-$300 a month, but since then it’s grown into a few thousand dollars in the same time span – hence the Hungry Minds drive.
“The reason we’re doing it now is partly because the holidays are a busy time, but we also want to raise the awareness so that people remember they can donate any time of the year,” she said. “We only do this a few times a year and that’s our primary goal. We see a rise in the use of the station in the days before holidays when the library is going to be closed or at the end of the month when things get tight financially.”
People are being encouraged to bring non-perishable items, but in the event perishable goods are dropped off, Costache said there’s a plan to accept them as well.
“Sometimes we’ll get things that have to be used sooner rather than later, and if nobody takes them I can just drop them off at House of Blessing or take them to the food kitchen at (St. Andrew’s Church),” she said. “They’ve got fridges and they’re better equipped to handle those types of things.”
Anyone wanting to donate to Hungry Minds Food Drive either with goods for the Snack Stop or a monetary contribution can reach out to Shauna Costacha at [email protected].
