By Jim Kenyon

Valley News Columnist

They came at the appointed hour to Westshire Elementary School in West Fairlee on Tuesday in minivans, pickups and aging sedans.Then there was 4-year-old Ava Marie Pease who came pulling a tiny red wagon.

Her doting grandfather, Allen Ordway, wasn’t far behind.They left the school’s driveway with a wagon-load of bagged groceries. Some bags included boxes of rice, oatmeal, crackers and corn muffin mix. Others were filled with sweet potatoes, bell peppers and apples, along with milk, yogurt and a dozen fresh eggs.

After the coronarvirus pandemic hit, “we knew there were families who were going to need help, especially if people were laid off from their jobs,” said Jen Shatney, of West Fairlee.

Shatney is spearheading a small group of “mostly moms” that is determined no one will go hungry in West Fairlee and neighboring Vershire during these trying times.

Communities have “emergency plans for floods and blizzards, but a global pandemic?” Shatney said.

Without a how-to map, the women formed what they call — for lack of time to come up with anything catchier — the “Tuesday Noon Grocery Club.”

Starting three weeks ago, the club set up shop on the covered concrete walkway that runs along the outside of the school’s gym.

In a short time, Shatney and three or four other women have managed to collect food from several sources.

Willing Hands, a Norwich-based nonprofit that distributes fresh food — much of it fruits and vegetables from grocery stores that otherwise might go to waste — was already stopping in West Fairlee on Tuesdays.

Read the full article.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.