Upcoming Closures!
The Newton Food Pantry will be closed on Wednesday, April 29 and Thursday, April 30.
When Jeremy Wolfe was working toward his Ph.D. in psychology in the late 1970s, he began volunteering in the Mass General Hospital emergency room. He says he wanted to help those in need and liked doing “something where there is nothing you can do that will move you up” professionally.
Nearly 30 years later, when much of the world shut down due to the COVID pandemic, Dr. Wolfe again found novel ways to be useful. He signed up to volunteer with the Newton Food Pantry and continues to support the organization on a near-weekly basis.
Preferring more active tasks, Dr. Wolfe is often found around the Newton Food Pantry collecting and returning shopping carts during client service hours, taking out the recycling, and bringing cases of fresh produce into our pantry for restocking. He also delivers groceries on a biweekly basis to medically homebound clients.
The Newton Food Pantry provides fresh, healthy and culturally relevant food to more than 2,500 Newton residents in need through its primary pantry, located in the basement of Newton City Hall, and via home delivery to qualified households.
Outside of the Newton Food Pantry, Dr. Wolfe is the director of the Visual Attention Lab. The lab operates through Brigham & Women’s Hospital and conducts research on how people visually perceive and process information. In addition, the lab focuses on how people’s attention shapes what they see, don’t see, and the potential impact. Dr. Wolfe’s team works virtually from four different continents. Apart from his research, Dr. Wolfe is also a professor of ophthalmology and radiology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Wolfe’s humility and selflessness have made a tremendous impact on the Newton Food Pantry community. He and his wife, Julie Sandell, have been generous financial donors to the organization — including a multiyear commitment — and he routinely puts a smile on clients’ faces through humor and kindness.
Dr. Wolfe says everyone who has the time and/or means to support the Newton Food Pantry should. Although hunger isn’t always in plain sight, it clearly exists throughout Newton if only you take the time to look. It’s a problem we can collectively address, the ophthalmologist says — if we choose to see it and act.
Learn how you can volunteer with the Newton Food Pantry at https://newtonfoodpantry.org/get-involved/.