Ridgefield Grocery Store Volunteers Lend A Hand To Danbury Food Rescue

DANBURY, CT — Volunteers from The Community Food Rescue in Danbury will be outside the Stop & Shop in Ridgefield from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, collecting food donations.

The nonprofit's mission is to provide food for local agencies to help them feed people. The group prioritizes the senior population.

The table outside the Stop & Shop is a smart idea: Ridgefield residents will have the opportunity to shop for Danbury's neediest, and drop their purchases off just as they walk out of the grocery store.

But that's not the only collaboration going on between the denizens of one of the most diverse cities in the country, and Connecticut's safest town.

As he will be doing Sunday, Ron Salvatore, the manager of the Ridgefield Stop & Shop, regularly organizes crews of his employees to help the Danbury Community Food Rescue behind the scenes. He and his volunteers from inside the store helped with the set-up, and even made flyers for the event. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons, it's the Stop & Shop workers who assemble the gift bags of food and supplies that the food rescue hands out to the needy.

"We want to be known in the communities for good support. They support us by shopping here. And we support them by giving back to the community. That's what we're all about," Salvatore told Patch. He's been fighting that good fight for all the 46 years he has been employed with the Stop & Shop organization, including the last four-and-a-half years he has been managing the Ridgefield store.

Linda Hutchings, the sourcing manager for the food rescue, said she was amazed by the amount of hard work Salvatore's people do each month, behind the scenes with almost zero recognition. But according to the grocery store manager, finding other Stop & Shop employees to help with the pantry's needs looks a lot harder than it is.

"I have no problem getting volunteers. People are just that way. You know, big-hearted," Salvatore said.

On Wednesday, the Stop & Shop volunteers will travel to The Community Food Rescue's headquarters pantry at 78 Triangle Street in Danbury to work for part of the day. They will be sorting through the donations, stocking shelves, and "helping out in any way we can," Salvatore said.

You can help out, too, with a donation to The Community Food Rescue. The most in-demand items currently are rice, pasta, peanut butter, tuna and cereal, according to Hutchings.