Who we are, and where we’ve been.
History of the Lacey Food Bank
Emil “Mr.Food Bank” Ciangetti was involved with the food bank from it’s beginning until his death in 2004. Assuming the Chairmanship in 1992, Emil ran the LFB throughout the ’90s. Although he resigned as Chairman in December 2000, he continued to serve as a dedicated volunteer, under the leadership of the new Chairman, Guy Burnett.
Burnett served as Chairman for a decade as he worked to make the food bank run by committee. In 2009 he turned over the leadership to Laura Caroccia and Harold “Pete” Peters as Co-Chairmen of the LFB.
Later Laura Caroccia resigned as co-Chairman in order to head the Lacey Food Kids project., and longtime volunteer Ed Weisbrot took over as co-chairman.
In 2016, JoAnne Kurtz started as a volunteer and took over the client database and record keeping and implemented the computer system we currently use. In 2020 when COVID hit, JoAnne was appointed Director of the Food Bank by Guy Burnette and took over all the on-site responsibilities of the Food Bank with the help of many, many grants, was able to do a complete makeover of the food bank. of course, she could not have been so successful without volunteer Bob McAvoy and many other volunteers.
With COVID and the fears of many clients, we were able to start a drive-thru distribution that we hosted for 2 years. We had a lot of long-time volunteers step back due to COVID, and we received an influx of new volunteers that stepped up. Working together, we never missed a distribution and we had car lines that went on for blocks. We fed them all.
In January 2022, we came back inside to an 85% choice pantry… which means the clients come in and shop for what they want instead of receiving bags of prepackaged groceries. The clients are so grateful for this change and we have cut down on boomerang food returns. They take what they will eat.
The Forked River Presbyterian Church Hunger Action Team continues to provide produce for each distribution.
The Pepperidge Farm Route owned by Massimo Coppola, donates bread at each distribution. There is always a wide variety of bread and clients are grateful!
Without all of the vendors and volunteers, we could NEVER do what we do. Our roster is always growing and we continue to rely on the community and organizations to hold food drives as well as cash donations we spend on food.
Currently, our food supply is lower than ever due to the economic hardships we are all facing with the rising costs of EVERYTHING…. yet, we are still able to feed our community! Looking into the eyes of the people we serve each month is a humbling experience… and we are grateful for everyone who pitches in to help.
We are able to maintain our mission: “No one in Lacey Township shall go to bed hungry” only with the help from our community!