WEST ROXBURY – The holidays are a busy time for food banks. But with the number of families in Massachusetts faced with food insecurity now at a whopping 35%, according to the Great Boston Food BankKeeping those shelves stocked is a job all year round.
Darra Slagle has a passion for food. And it comes in box after box, bag after bag, to Rose’s Bounty food bank in West Roxbury, where she is executive director.
“I just enjoy doing this. I like feeling like my work meant something at the end of the day,” Slagle says.
“There is always something to do”
And she is tireless, providing countless volunteers at the pantry.
“There’s always something to do here,” Slagle said. “There is so much work that no one ever suffers a loss.”
CBS Boston
Rose’s Bounty assembles food bags every week to help 2,000 people in a state where food insecurity reaches one in three households.
“And this city, this state that is so rich that no one should have to go without food on the table,” Slagle said.
Thousands of pounds worth of food orders
What Slagle doesn’t get much of is downtime. When she does, she is at home ordering food for the pantry. One day she showed WBZ-TV how she ordered more than 12,000 pounds. Thanks to grants and donations, she will order £20,000 for the whole week.
“It takes a lot of effort on my part. Spreadsheets, I’m a big fan of spreadsheets,” she said.
Her drive to the utility room may be less than two miles from home, but passing these houses every day reminds her that no one really knows what the need is behind closed doors.
“There’s probably a lot of mouths to feed in that house. Food is expensive. The rent is high,” Slagle said.
That’s what drives her to the pantry every day, ready for the next round of donations that will fill the shelves and help the homebound — the community Slagle wants to ensure doesn’t go hungry.
“It’s a really nice place to be,” she said. “And we all work hard to do good for our community.”
Bet Germano
