The weather was cloudy and misty when we got up, but it didn't dampen our plans. We drove to the center of town to the re-opening of the Hanover Food Pantry. For years it has been housed in a church basement with very little space for the donated food, clients or volunteers. Today it reopened in two large rooms in the stately, but empty, Sylvester School. We had a quick tour, masked, (not many others were), and were so pleased to see the comfortable reception room and spacious, shelved food room. The shelved room is big enough for small shopping carts and for the first time, fresh and frozen food can be offered. Yale Appliance, a local shop donated a refrigerator and freezer making that possible. Many donated food bags were dropped off today and carried in with the help of the local Boy Scout Troupe.
Rustic Marlin, another Hanover shop that manufactures decorative wooden signs, donated 400 Hope signs for free a give-a-way and a Corn Hole game with our town's signature anchor for a raffle.
The Edmund Q. Sylvester School was built in1927 as a high school. Both of my parents graduated from the school in the late 30s. I attended in the late 50s, early 60s when it housed 5th and 6th grades. My grandmother was the Hanover School Superintendent's secretary and her office was there as well. Both of my grandmothers, born in the late 1890s ,went to Business School as it was called then and worked as secretaries and stenographers. Recently, the Sylvester School has been standing empty. An addition to an elementary school next door to deal with overcrowding made the building unnecessary as a school. I'm sure the building would if it could, whisper how happy it is with two rooms brimming with hope and food and happy voices in these needy times.
Three food trucks were also on the scene, so we enjoyed a lunch on the picnic tables outside of the school.
For the Record,
This day came in dark and dreary, but is ending with sun. I could do with some humidity relief, but it's nice to see the sun.
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
