Worcester, MASS. - Delivery day at the South Worcester Neighborhood Center requires all hands on deck. A dozen volunteers spent the morning unloading and unpacking food donations from the Worcester County Food Bank.  

“We can use all the volunteers we can possibly get on that day because it’s just a pain in the neck,” director Tom L’Ecuyer said. “At the same time, we are still providing food to people who are outside at the doors, waiting at the doors sometimes before we even open up.”

L’Ecuyer said they’re seeing a roughly 76% increase in clients and now serve anywhere 160 to 180 families a day.  

“In the past, we were probably doing about 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of food pretty much a week. Now we are doing roughly 30,000 pounds of food a week,” L’Ecuyer said. 

The high demand for help may hit even harder with less than a week until Thanksgiving. The food pantry said this year, they can’t promise a turkey to everyone.   

“This year is tremendously different than any years in the past. Obviously, there are some people that are very upset by it. We’ve been running turkey days here for as long as I’ve been here since 2012 and this is the very first year to do that," L’Ecuyer said. “So, it’s disheartening.”

L’Ecuyer said they’re set to get some turkeys, but they don’t know when or how many. They’re instead, handing out more than 200 $20 gift cards from the Worcester County Food Bank and plenty of dinner sides.  

“We got some butternut squash, some acorn squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, bags of potatoes,” L’Ecuyer said. “So, we do have that stuff there, but no turkeys.”

After Thanksgiving, L’Ecuyer is worried the center will struggle to keep up with the high demand heading into an even busier Christmas season.  

“Where we are at now, I don’t know how we are going to do what we want to do,” he said. “I think this year, especially for Christmas time, we are going to focus all our efforts on the children. “

The food pantry said they’re in need of as many donations as possible this holiday season.