Pantry Hours

Tuesday | 11am-1pm

Thursday | 4pm-7pm

Saturday | 11am-1pm

533 Branch Ave., Providence, RI | Serving the 02904, 02903 and 02908 zip codes.

Please bring a photo ID, proof of current address and shopping bag. More information.

By Sharon Lee Waldman, YNFP board member

Sometime in late 2021 or early 2022, during the Coronavirus Pandemic, Suzanne Chase of Colonial Road started collecting food scraps from her Summit neighbors for her friend’s cows in Little Compton. According to Sue, it started because Rev. Rebecca (Spencer), who was the senior minister at Central Congregational church at that time, occasionally mentioned her cows from the pulpit.  Sue misunderstood, thinking she had one “pet” cow. So, she started bringing her kitchen scraps to church on Sundays.  Sue says that, “I do believe I was the only parishioner who brought garbage to church! Once I visited Little Compton and realized Rebecca had eight cows and how big they were, my contribution seemed laughable!” That’s when she decided to reach out to neighbors and post an “ask” on the Facebook Buy Nothing East Side group.

Through her Facebook Buy Nothing posts and word of mouth, Sue says she developed a base of 8 to 10 regularly contributing households, and collected food from over 100 people over the years! She also collected past-their-prime perishables from Your Neighborhood Food Pantry and the Jewish Collaborative Services food pantry, when available.

Sue also enjoyed collecting neighbors’ post-Halloween pumpkins for the cows. At one point last year, as Rebecca was recovering from surgery, Sue says that “My daughter-in-law and I went down to Little Compton to deliver a significant load of pumpkins.  My daughter-in-law, who is only 4’ 11” is a “mighty mouse”!  Not only did she almost single-handedly unload many large pumpkins to hurl over a fence almost as high as she, but also tossed an enormous pumpkin to the bull who played with it like a soccer ball!”  Other parishioners also helped with pumpkin deliveries since they are an important food source for the cows and the seeds are a natural dewormer.

Not only does this community project help Rebecca feed her herd, but it also keeps hundreds of pounds of food out of our landfill. RI has a number of composting companies and programs blossoming in the state. This is vital since “the state has had a ban on commercial food waste in the landfill since 2016”, according to Eco RI News. Unfortunately, this ban is not often enforced and the Central Landfill is expected to reach capacity in about 20 years. According to cetonline.org, “…wasted food makes up a staggering 19% of incoming material (to the landfill)— over 700 tons per day!” Per RI News Today.com, “The average American producers around 4 pounds of trash every day, and at least a pound of that is food waste.”

Now retired, Rebecca drives up to Providence every Friday to gather the donations and drive them back to her cows. These contributions have fed multiple cows, along with seven or eight newborn calves at Rebecca’s beautiful farm. On Saturday, August 2nd, neighbors had a chance to meet the cows they fed in person and see the fruits of their contributions. It was a beautiful, sunny, summer day and about 20 neighbors visited and enjoyed Rebecca’s hospitality.

Sue had to stop her collections in June due to some medical issues, but the cows still benefit from the food pantries’ donations, when available. Thank you, Sue, for all you have done to rally the community to help Rebecca, as well as keep neighbors’ scraps from the landfill!

P.S. Please reach out to snaprov@gmail.com if you feel inspired to take up Sue’s food collecting project and want more information.