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If every Dedham resident donated $1 during the Holiday Harvest Telethon, Justin Cowley estimates the town’s cable access station would raise about $25, 000 for the food pantry.
Dedham Food Pantry trustee Lindsay Barich takes it one step further.
“There are over 400 businesses in Dedham,” he says. “If each one gave $100 that would be $40,000, which is our food budget for the year.”
Revived last year after a 10-year hiatus, the Holiday Harvest Telethon, a fundraiser with Dedham Public Television, covers the cost of about half the food Dedham Food Pantry buys for the year. The telethon raised $27,000 last year for the food pantry.
Cowley, the station’s production coordinator, said his late grandfather Karl Littleton, a food pantry volunteer, had suggested the event be revived.
“Good thing I brought it back because people needed food,” said Cowley, a 24-year-old Norwood resident.
This year’s telethon can be viewed on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 7 to 9 p.m., on Comcast Channel 8, Verizon Channel 40 or RCN Channel 15. Residents can even watch the telethon live at Dedham Public Television, at 95 Eastern Ave.
The telethon will feature musical performances by such artists as blues band Joe Fitz and the Dented Cans and Irish step dancing.
“We have a person who is going to do magic this year,” Cowley said. “He also does balloons for kids.”
FOX25 news anchors Maria Stephanos and Mark Ockerbloom will also be on hand to help host the show, Barich said.
People can donate to the telethon by calling Dedham Public Television at 781-326-2107, or by dropping contributions to the station.
Several volunteers will be answering phones throughout the telethon, Cowley said. Volunteers include, Dedham Public Television executive director Katelyn Willis, production assistant Matt Naughton and receptionist Jess Corbo.
“If they weren’t here I don’t know how far I would have gotten,” Cowley said.
There will also be about 20 volunteers from the pantry the have helped plan for the telethon, by contacting businesses, Barich said.
This is the Dedham Food Pantry’s biggest fundraiser of the year, Barich said. It will help many of the 160 Dedham families who benefit from the pantry on an annual basis.
Families, depending on their size, can shop at the pantry once or twice a month.
Higher food prices have boosted pantry usage by 40 percent over the last year, Barich said.
“We used to have 30 to 35 families a week on average,” he said. “Now we have above 50.”
If every Dedham resident donated $1 during the Holiday Harvest Telethon, Justin Cowley estimates the town’s cable access station would raise about $25, 000 for the food pantry.
Dedham Food Pantry trustee Lindsay Barich takes it one step further.
“There are over 400 businesses in Dedham,” he says. “If each one gave $100 that would be $40,000, which is our food budget for the year.”
Revived last year after a 10-year hiatus, the Holiday Harvest Telethon, a fundraiser with Dedham Public Television, covers the cost of about half the food Dedham Food Pantry buys for the year. The telethon raised $27,000 last year for the food pantry.
Cowley, the station’s production coordinator, said his late grandfather Karl Littleton, a food pantry volunteer, had suggested the event be revived.
“Good thing I brought it back because people needed food,” said Cowley, a 24-year-old Norwood resident.
This year’s telethon can be viewed on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 7 to 9 p.m., on Comcast Channel 8, Verizon Channel 40 or RCN Channel 15. Residents can even watch the telethon live at Dedham Public Television, at 95 Eastern Ave.
The telethon will feature musical performances by such artists as blues band Joe Fitz and the Dented Cans and Irish step dancing.
“We have a person who is going to do magic this year,” Cowley said. “He also does balloons for kids.”
FOX25 news anchors Maria Stephanos and Mark Ockerbloom will also be on hand to help host the show, Barich said.
People can donate to the telethon by calling Dedham Public Television at 781-326-2107, or by dropping contributions to the station.
Several volunteers will be answering phones throughout the telethon, Cowley said. Volunteers include, Dedham Public Television executive director Katelyn Willis, production assistant Matt Naughton and receptionist Jess Corbo.
“If they weren’t here I don’t know how far I would have gotten,” Cowley said.
There will also be about 20 volunteers from the pantry the have helped plan for the telethon, by contacting businesses, Barich said.
This is the Dedham Food Pantry’s biggest fundraiser of the year, Barich said. It will help many of the 160 Dedham families who benefit from the pantry on an annual basis.
Families, depending on their size, can shop at the pantry once or twice a month.
Higher food prices have boosted pantry usage by 40 percent over the last year, Barich said.
“We used to have 30 to 35 families a week on average,” he said. “Now we have above 50.”
The pantry will use the donations to buy items at a discounted price from The Greater Boston Food Bank. For the amount of money it costs to buy one bag of food from the grocery store, one can buy eight bags of food at the food bank, Barich said.
The Dedham Food Pantry recently announced it has found a new location to replace its home of the past 19 years, the basement of St. John’s United Methodist Church.
“We’re 99 percent sure that we’re moving to our new home,” Co-President Lynn Rogal said of the space of about 1,500 square feet to the side of Dedham Plaza, formerly a hardware store, that has been donated by Federal Realty.
