For 20 years, Boothbay Region Elementary School students have lent a helping hand to the local food pantry. During the past three weeks, students were asked to bring three non-perishable food items to the school. On Monday morning, pre-kindergarten through sixth graders bagged the donated items. Seventh graders loaded the food onto the truck. In the afternoon, eighth graders formed a human chain outside the Boothbay Harbor Congregational Church and delivered the donated items into the Boothbay Region Food Pantry.

Once the food was inside, a dozen eighth graders further assisted food pantry volunteers with storing the donated items. Pantry co-president Tom Wilson has been a volunteer for 10 years. He is responsible for the pantry’s inventory.

“The students come every year and help sort everything out. It’s really organized chaos starting out because they’re all asking were everything goes, but once they find their rhythm, it goes pretty smoothly,” Wilson said.

The days following Columbus Day are usually the beginning of the pantry’s busiest time of the year. The pantry serves about 300 families per month, according to Wilson.

“Once the restaurants close for the season it gets pretty busy,” he said. “The YMCA and Center for Teaching and Learning also do food drives. This helps us meet the demands of families in need.”

For the past decade, BRES Principal Mark Tess has been a Boothbay Region Food Pantry volunteer. Each year, the pantry notifies him when to deliver the food donated by the school.

“It’s usually before or after Thanksgiving, and one year it was in the spring,” Tess said. “They just tell when they want it, and we show up.”

While the students were waiting to unload the truck full of food, sixth grader Jonathan Genrich stated he donated six items. “Two cans of corn, two cans of green beans and two cans of canned peas.”

The pantry is open every Friday from noon to 2 p.m. and the second Monday of each month from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m at the church, located at 125 Townsend Avenue.