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“The food cupboard being here is a plus,” Goulette said. “Just this week they could have had 4,800 pounds of sausage, but had no place to keep it and had to turn it down. And having a fitness center -- it’s just one more thing that Guilford can offer,” Goulette said. “A whole lot of people like it.”
Probably nobody likes it better than Al Hunt, operator of the Partnership Pantry.
“We’ve been a mobile pantry from day one,” he said. Food has been distributed from a cargo trailer parked in a neighbor’s driveway for the past three years. “Just getting out of the howling snow and rains is a big bonus for us! Something tells me that once we’re more stable looking, the numbers of people we serve are going to expand because I think people will see us as more of a permanent fixture.”
Hunt said the new space will allow more storage and will allow the pantry to accept the next offers for donated freezers that come along.
“I think we could put eight or nine big freezers in,” he said. “Donated freezers haven’t been the problem. They come up often enough, but it was where to put them.”
Hunt said that from day one, he was wanted this to be more than a place that “handed out bags of food.” The pantry was started with support from Save Virtues and the John Adams Institute, a program run by Chris Reardon in Dover-Foxcroft. And like Reardon, Hunt will now have space to offer training to improve the life and job skills of clients.
“This move gives us space to help people not to need the food cupboard,” Hunt said. “I expect we’ll be open by September – and certainly before snow flies again. It’s been a rough three years. We are so grateful to the town for the opportunity to get in out of the weather.”
For information about the Partnership Pantry, call 876-3282.