Shredding Day, donations give big boost to Tri-Town Food Bank

Although the Tri-Town Community Action Agency’s Food Bank isn’t overflowing, it’s filling up – rather quickly in fact – through the efforts of two recent highly-successful events.

The first was last Saturday’s free Shredding Day, held at the Johnston Senior Center on behalf of Mayor Joseph Polisena and the town of Johnston.

Despite a stiff breeze that created some chilly temperatures, the Day was a huge success, and perhaps one of the best since the event began three years ago.

“I’m really, really satisfied with the results,” said Tri-Town CEO Joseph DeSantis. “I’d say we surpassed last year’s total of collecting 500 pounds of canned goods and non-perishable items. All the donations will go a long, long way.”

People came to the center’s parking lot where Lou Vinagro of Full Circle Recycling had two huge vehicles set up to shred personal papers. He also had a red pickup truck on site for people to place either bags or boxes of canned goods or food items as a payment of sorts for the shredding service.

“Everyone seems to be bringing more than his or her fair share,” Vinagro told Polisena and DeSantis, along with Tony Zompa, the center’s executive director, who staffed the entire four-hour event. “I’m happy for the people who really need this sort of help.”

One woman who heard about the event and came from Providence with 12 bags of papers she wanted shredded said: “It’s rewarding to give these bags of food. Lots of people are hurting financially.”

Several people simply pulled into the center’s parking lot, stopped briefly and put either boxes or bags of food on the back end of Vinagro’s pickup truck.

But the non-perishable food items weren’t the only thing that got Polisena, DeSantis, Vinagro and Zompa excited.

It was actually what transpired after the recent Fire Bowl 2014, a flag football game that matched the fire department personnel of Johnston and North Providence, that created more interest than ever in the food collection for Tri-Town.

For starters, Polisena and his North Providence counterpart Charles Lombardi each wagered they would donate $200 to Tri-Town if their respective team lost the Fire Bowl.

At a special ceremony inside North Providence Town Hall’s Executive Chambers last week, Polisena made good on his bet – and presented DeSantis with a check for $200. It was that payment that triggered two more $200 donations, one coming from Lombardi and the other from DeSantis, who was seemingly overwhelmed with the mayors’ generosity.

And those donations were followed by two huge gifts – a check for $1,000 from Pawtucket Savings & Trust, and a $500 gift from Washington Trust – and yet another $250 donation from Gashy Construction.

“We all know it’s a difficult time for a lot of people,” Polisena said. “This is the least we can do for our senior citizens. They’re important, and on a personal level I always want to do as much as I can. Remember, there are a lot of seniors on fixed incomes and events like this go a long, long way in helping the greatest generation of our time.”