By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — After the Milk Fund fell short of its goal of raising $80,000 last year, the future of the longtime local charity drive seemed in doubt.

The drive did collect a total of $65,000 before the drive concluded on Dec. 30 but lacked the large number of volunteers and benefactors that have traditionally lent it support.
City Councilman Roger G. Jalette Sr. hopes to change all that as he takes on the challenge of chairman of this year’s edition of the Milk Fund.
“I’m ready to take this and run with it,” Jalette said Wednesday after learning from Dave Richards of WOON Radio, a drive sponsor with The Call, that he would be heading the effort to keep the Milk Fund alive for the city’s working families, the elderly and disadvantaged.
Jalette said he has already begun putting together a group of people interested in helping him with the 77th Milk Fund appeal beginning its month-long run on Dec. 1.
“I’ve gotten some positive reactions to that from people so I will be getting some help,” Jalette said.
So far Nancy Phillips, president of Milk Fund Inc., has confirmed the Lions Club role in running Good Fellows Day this year, and the members of the Cercle Laurier club on East School Street have agreed to run a paper bottle drive at the group’s headquarters, he noted.
 Jalette has also begun the process of finding someone to headline the Milk Fund Roast, another big fundraiser held during the annual drive.
Hopefully, getting word of that big event out in the community will help draw even more volunteers to the drive, Jalette said.
“I believe we can reach the goal of $80,000 this year, we just need some people to care and to donate some time,” he said.
The fund was founded by The Call and what is today Family Resources in 1932 to help provide a  nutritional supplement to local children in need.
Today the Milk Fund still puts milk into the refrigerators of working poor families, and also assists elderly residents who are struggling to make ends meet while living on fixed incomes.
This year’s drive will be kicking off in a troubled economy but that is all the more reason for people to help it reach its annual funding goal, he said.
“People are losing jobs and Rhode Island has the one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country,” Jalette said.
The absence of a major civic group to staff drive events had loomed as a significant hurdle for this year’s appeal, according to Nancy Phillips, but Jalette appears to have already made strides in addressing the problem.
“He is basically a concerned citizen who stepped in to take on the Milk Fund’s appeal,” she said. “It’s a big challenge because he doesn’t have a club or civic organization behind him, he is on his own,” she said.
Without Jalette stepping forward to rebuild the Milk Fund’s volunteer base, it is possible the appeal would have looked much different this year than it has in the past,” she said.
The area’s economic troubles will be a factor in trying to get donations this time around and Phillips believes a greater number of people will have to step forward to make this year’s drive a success.
“He can do it, but he needs volunteers to help him,” she said.
Jalette said he is ready for the challenge and asked anyone willing to join him to call his flower shop at 176 Greene St. to let him know of their interest. He can be reached at 401-597-5790.
“These are trying times but we are not asking people to give a dime more to the Milk Fund than they did last year. We are just asking more people to make a small donation. We are trying to grow the Milk Fund and anyone willing to help can call me down at my store,” he said.