Since coming on three years ago as a volunteer, Raymond’s Ron Locke has quietly donated more than $60,000 and nearly 60,000 lbs. of food to the NH Food Bank. (Photo: David Lazar)
For Raymond’s Ron Locke, perhaps the only challenge more confounding than world peace, he laughs, is finding a Christmas gift for his beloved Mary Ann. “My wife doesn’t wear jewelry, doesn’t really do perfume. Neither of us is extravagant,” says the 65-year-old electronics entrepreneur and grandpa of six. “We’re the kind of people where, if we need it, we’ll just get it right then and there and not wait for the holiday.” So when Locke, a longtime supporter of local charities, set off to find his wife’s stocking stuffer three years ago, he pursued a different path. What began as a quest for the “Ultimate Christmas Gift” became the ultimate act of kindness for thousands of families in need across the Granite State – one that continues to this day.
Locke still wells up recalling his wife’s tears opening her gift that year. In a box beneath their tree was a homemade DVD chronicling his quest – a choreographed search which brought him to several local establishments before concluding in the back of a Hannaford supermarket. There, a smiling representative from the NH Food Bank, the state’s largest provider of nourishment to those in need, greeted Locke, rolling out pallet after pallet of food, enough to supply some 40,000 meals. “I just remember waking up one night around 3 or 3:30 in the morning and having this ‘aha’ moment,” Locke says. “Everyone was getting laid off in the news – this is when the recession was at its worst. I wanted to do something to help these people.”
In the NH Food Bank, Locke, no stranger himself at times to struggle, discovered a cause near and dear to his heart. Founded in 1984, the Catholic Charities of New England-run organization each year distributes more than 6.5 million pounds of donated, surplus food to local pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, daycares and senior homes. Since the economic downturn of 2008, the charity has seen the roster of residents it feeds annually jump from 95,000 to roughly 130,000, and today integrates a host of programs designed to meet new demand, from salvaging and freezing supermarkets’ soon-to-expire meat and growing its own produce through local gardens to offering courses for aspiring chefs and those cooking on a budget.
In Locke, meantime, the NH Food Bank has found one of its most committed – and kind-hearted – ambassadors. Since coming on three years ago, Locke has quietly donated more than $60,000 and 59,314 pounds of food to the Manchester-based nonprofit, studiously avoiding the spotlight and instead volunteering hundreds of hours to give tours, speak to the community and serve as a megaphone for a mission whose importance, he says, cannot be understated. “Hunger doesn’t know holidays or vacations,” he says. “These are our neighbors and they’re hurting. My wife and I have what we need in our lives. If it’s a small thing we can do to help, then that’s it.” For more information, visit www.nhfoodbank.org.
