A Beautiful Night for Our Annual Meeting

The 2025 Annual Meeting was held on October 6th, a beautiful autumn night, at the scenic Red Tail Golf Club in Devens. Over 125 guests enjoyed delicious food and good company. They spent the evening reflecting on the record-breaking year we just had, while acknowledging that the need for the Pantry will likely continue to grow in the coming year. Many of our top supporters were recognized for their extraordinary contributions — important pieces of our puzzle! Their assistance helped Loaves & Fishes feed our neighbors in need without missing a beat, despite unprecedented demand.

Videos from the Event

The Setting: The Worcester Tent at Red Tail Golf Club in Devens

Our Guests

The Awards

Top 25 Volunteers

Our volunteers are the heart of our organization – we could not do what we do without them. We had 455 volunteers donate over 16,000 hours of their time this year, and many of them gave 100 hours or more! The Top 25 Volunteers gave more of their time than everyone else – with some giving as many as 400 hours over the course of last year!

Founders Award

The Founders Award is given to our volunteers in appreciation of their longevity and dedication to our mission. The award recognizes service anniversaries of ten years or more. Pictured above with Board Member Jeff Howe is Barbara Kemp, Wanda Burns, and Donna Romily. Unfortunately, our other Founders Award recipients, Alison and Rich Enright, Barry Kroening, and Jessica Roetzer were unable to attend.

Grande Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service

The Grande Award recognizes a volunteer who has gone above the call of duty in serving the mission of Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry. It honors a person who has made an extraordinary gift of time and skills; who has been with our organization for many years; and who is dependable, flexible, and represents our diversity as an organization. This person is a leader and deserves our deepest gratitude for the countless ways he or she serves our clients.

This year’s recipient, Kathy Raftery, pictured above with Board Member Merle Adelman and Senior Administrative Assistant, Mellissa Richard, is a shining example of the values celebrated by the Grande Award. She goes above and beyond helping out with administrative projects, such as data entry, counting the money collected in the coin canisters, addressing envelopes, and many, many other things. She’s always ready and willing to help with a cheerful smile on her face!

The Charlane VanWormer Award

This award honors an individual who has made volunteering a focal point in their life. Like Charlanne, in whose memory this award has been established, they give selflessly of themselves to the community, including Loaves & Fishes. They are compassionate, generous, and always willing to lend a hand.

This year’s recipient, Aldea Choquette, pictured above with Board Member Jeff Howe and Food Coordinator Assistant, Sarah Smith, received her award to a standing ovation! Aldea is a friendly, familiar face to most at the Pantry, always helping out in back pantry or wherever she’s needed. In addition to donating her time at Loaves & Fishes, she’s a member of Team Rubicon, an organization which helps veterans around the country; she actively collects clothes and materials for area homeless people, among many other things. She is a huge asset to the Pantry and to the whole community – we’re so lucky to have her!

Outstanding Community Partner Awards

This award honors businesses and organizations that have made extraordinary contributions this year of time, financial support, donations of food, or other forms of help to further the mission of Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry.

Bake ‘n Joy in Ayer has been providing an abundance of special treats for the Pantry for the last four years, including over 1,000 desserts for our Thanksgiving and Holiday Dinner Distributions! They also allowed us to store extra banana boxes!

Shriver Job Corps in Devens has formed a great partnership with the Pantry. Students have donated over 440 hours of their time this past year! They enjoy coming to Loaves & Fishes, helping out with everything from sorting donations and stocking shelves to helping with administrative projects.

Donelan’s of Littleton has been extremely supportive for many years, including hosting a donation box. This past year in particular, they held two large food drives for the Pantry – collecting over 1,500 pounds of food for the Holiday Dinner Distributions and nearly 1,900 pounds of food for our Summer Kid Bags! Unfortunately, they were unable to attend our Annual Meeting.

Our Team

Thanks to our Board of Directors, our Staff, and our Video Production Team for making the night a success!