Right now, the Family Pantry is entering its busiest time of year, having just provided hundreds of clients with all the ingredients for a full Thanksgiving meal, from frozen turkeys, peas, carrots, onions, potatoes and stuffing right down to pies and bread. That’s on top of the many hundreds of regular grocery orders that the organization fills each week. Pretty soon, the Pantry will be doing its annual holiday toy distribution, just in time for Hanukkah and Christmas.

All of this happens at a time when thousands of local families have found themselves turning to food pantries for the first time ever, thanks to a host of factors including the government shutdown, the interruption in SNAP benefits, the discontinuation of health insurance subsidies and the still-soaring cost of living on Cape Cod.

As it’s done for the last 21 years, The Cape Cod Chronicle is launching its Helping Neighbors campaign for the Family Pantry of Cape Cod. In the few weeks between now and New Year’s Eve, we hope to raise a record $130,000, all to help feed and clothe people in need. Every donation up to the goal will be matched, dollar-for dollar, thanks to Karen Campbell and a host of anonymous donors who support Helping Neighbors every year.

Some Pantry clients visit the headquarters in North Harwich to pick up groceries, but they can also receive clothing for themselves and their families, as well as referrals to other local social service agencies that help with everything from housing and healthcare to transportation and heating assistance. Others get help through the Pantry’s mobile operation, Healthy Meals in Motion, which delivers groceries to people who can’t reach the Pantry, often through local councils on aging. There’s even a satellite pantry at Cape Cod Community College.

And much of the revenue used to buy all that food comes from Second Glance Thrift Boutique in West Harwich, an upscale thrift store that features only the very best items donated to the Pantry, from new and practically-new clothes to furniture and housewares.

Each week during Helping Neighbors, we’ll be telling the story of the Family Pantry, the volunteers who keep things running, and the local folks who rely on it to keep food on the table every week. We’ll also be publishing a list of contributors to the campaign.

Click here to donate now

or send a tax-deductible donation to The Family Pantry, 133 Queen Anne Rd., Harwich, MA 02645 (please write ” Helping Neighbors ” in the memo line), or call 508 432-6519 to learn about other ways to help.

Learn more about the hidden face of Hunger on the Lower Cape in this special video report: