Volunteers at the Family Pantry of Cape Cod have no trouble explaining why clients are treated with such respect. For some volunteers, humility is a matter of faith. For others, it's easy to empathize with people who've had a financial crisis or other emergency. And for Family Pantry worker Lisa Joyce, it's because she's walked in those shoes before.
Joyce and her husband owned a construction company for many years. Like most Cape Cod residents, they understood that it's an expensive place to live, but they were making ends meet.
“My husband was chronically ill. He was unable to work,” she said. Crushing medical debt and the need to care for an ailing loved one would be enough to put pressure on any family finances. “Then because of the housing crisis in 2008, we lost our home.”
They moved to Harwich, where she grew up, and thankfully managed to find subsidized housing. To help put food on the table, she visited the Family Pantry.
“I didn't quite know what to expect. I was treated warmly,” Joyce said. “It was a good experience.”
It wasn't long thereafter that her husband passed away.
“I decided I'd better find something to do with my time,” she said. She wondered whether the Family Pantry might need some help.
“Sure enough, they needed somebody to fill in for a couple of hours.” Admittedly, Joyce felt a little obligated to volunteer at first, given the help she had received. But she quickly found that she liked the work – and the new friends she was making.
“They're the nicest people. We have a lot of fun,” she said. “It's fun helping other people.”
Joyce bags groceries in the produce department.
“It's the first department they see when they come in.” Clients are free to choose the produce they like best and receive an amount based on the number of people in their family. “Every summer we get fresh vegetables,” she said. Joyce sometimes finds herself encouraging people to try the less familiar choices from the Family Pantry's garden, like beets, turnips and bok choy. The most popular items are potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage and tomatoes.
After working a shift at the Family Pantry, Joyce feels physically tired but proud of the good she's done.
“It's very tiring. And it's sad, because you see a lot of people who are out of work. The place is really busy,” Joyce said. “But all in all, it's a very good experience.”
The Family Pantry is indeed a busy place. Last year, it provided local families with more than 55,000 bags of food, from which they could make 1.15 million nutritious meals. The value of that food was more than $2.3 million.
It's not enough to be able to meet the demand for services in 2017, and indications are that the number of clients could jump considerably in the new year. Executive Director Christine Menard said the Family Pantry needs to be there for families year after year, regardless of swings in the economy or the political world.
“Sustainability is so important,” she said. “When the guys started [the Family Pantry] 27 years ago, the sustainability plan was bottles and cans.” Revenue from redeemable cans helped create a steady funding source, albeit five cents at a time. “That was brilliant,” Menard said. While the can redemption program still generates money, it's not enough.
To that end, the Family Pantry opened a tiny thrift shop in a storefront on a side street in Harwich Port, selling donated clothing and housewares. Organizers had high hopes for Second Glance, expecting it to cover about half of the organization's operating budget within five years.
“It has far exceeded our expectations,” Menard said. Now in a new, spacious home at 265 Main St., West Harwich, the store has an impressive following. Kids like to come for vintage clothing, and thrifty adults visit to fill out their own wardrobes. Visitors come to Cape Cod on bus tours that specifically target thrift shops, and Second Glance is a key stop.
“They call us the Nordstrom of Thrift,” Menard said with a laugh. Some people empty out their summer cottages at the end of the season, bringing furniture and other items to Second Glance, and others rely on the thrift shop to outfit their summer rentals at the start of each season. Oddly, the Family Pantry has a new challenge: finding sufficient donations of clothes, shoes, housewares and furniture to keep the thrift store stocked.
“The demand is insane,” Menard said. The revenue is sizable and predictable, helping the Family Pantry even off the year's financial peaks and valleys. Every dollar spent at the thrift shop provides four meals for Pantry clients, but the revenue is not enough to fully carry the operation.
“We will always rely on grants, donations, generosity. That will always be part of our world,” she said.
To that end, the Family Pantry has worked hard to prove itself an excellent steward of donated dollars and volunteer hours. In September, it earned the prestigious Service Enterprise certification, a program of the Points of Light Foundation. The certification required six months of training and a detailed assessment of everything from financial management to workplace safety.
“It tells the world that you treat your people well, your workers and your clients,” Menard said.
Menard is also among a group of local nonprofit leaders taking part in Tufts University's Tisch College Institute for Nonprofit Practice, which helps build her leadership and financial skills. The experience also allows Menard to network with the leaders of other local nonprofits, sharing best practices. She expects to complete the course of study in May.
From Lisa Joyce's perspective as a volunteer, the Family Pantry is operating well.
“It's an example of what can be done in other towns all over the country,” she said.
As for her own story, Joyce said she's doing fine.
“I'm getting along. It's harder without my husband,” she said. But when she's working a shift at the Family Pantry, she's among friends. And none of them need reminders to treat clients with respect.
“A lot of them have families and young children,” Joyce said. “I hate to see anybody go hungry, especially the little ones.”
As it does each holiday season, The Cape Cod Chronicle invites its readers to support the Family Pantry of Cape Cod by making a donation to the Helping Neighbors campaign. Donate here now, or send a tax-deductible donation to The Family Pantry, 133 Queen Anne Rd., Harwich, MA 02645 (please write “Helping Neighbors” in the memo line), or call 508 432-6519 to learn about other ways to help, like volunteering.
Helping Neighbors Donations
Week Four
Anonymous $7.50
Anonymous $25
Anonymous $25
Don and Hannah St. Pierre in Memory of our son Sean $100
Gary Ferguson $200
Susan Monson $150
Mary Abreu $50
Jay Stahl $50
Bernadette and Tom Casey $100
Ann O'Connell $50
Inez Giles and Seth Hudak $100
Jamison Rushnak $50
Pat and Bill Browne $25
Anonymous $100
Cam and Marty Koblish $50
Linda Sweeney $200
Joseph Sweeney $100
The Pagliocco Family $25
Trish O'Neill $500
Michael and Kay Honeywell $100
In Memory of Barbara Mahoney $50
Neil and Cindy Doherty $1,500
Ralph and Barbara Smith $5,000
Joyce Bearse $50
Margaret Dimm $100
Doug and Sheila Elliot $100
Jeanie and Elizabeth Gillis $50
Anonymous $25
Anonymous $15
Roberta McDonnell - In Memory of Betty Keeshan $50
Anonymous $100
Barbara and Jon Elkow $50
Julie and Dave Salerno $100
Barbara Wells $100
Anne Peirce - In Memory of my Parents Georgia and Henry McCusker $100
Anonymous $100
Lisa, Kaitlyn, Mackenzie Morio $50
Weekly Total $9,547.50
Previous Donations $10,267.50
TOTAL DONATIONS $19,815
