The Congregational Church in Temple has long supported local food pantries. Now, it is opening the doors of its own.
The effort of the Church’s Missions Committee will open in January to people in need in Temple and surrounding communities.
“Everyone should have a right to food,” Vicki Mellon, one of the members of the committee who first had the idea, said. “That’s our mission, to make sure people can have food.”
More important that just people, the new pantry, called Faith Food Pantry, is local in its mission, including donations from local dairy and produce farmers to deliver healthy food to people in the region.
“It’s our neighbors,” Maureen Cullinan said. “We’re feeding our neighbors.”
The idea for Faith Food Pantry had been percolating for years, after Mellon said she wanted to give back after having gotten from from St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry in Greenville in years prior.
“I remember thinking someday I want to pay it forward, because people don’t know, people shouldn’t be so proud to ask,” she said.
The pantry is stocked with food and personal items, such as toothpaste and bandages, pet food and school supplies. One goal is to have enough of a variety of food for people to keep healthy. Members of the committee spoke with people who rely on pantries and who run pantries as part of their planning and research. They determined that they needed not just to have enough food, but the right foods for their patrons to avoid health problems.
“They advertised that they needed peanut butter,” Cullinan said of the food bank. “It’s too expensive to access something as simple as peanut butter.”
The food comes from the New Hampshire Food Bank, located in Manchester, which serves more than 400 pantries state-wide, including those in Peterborough, Greenville and Wilton, which the Congregational Church will continue to support.
The Missions Committee has made several trips to the food bank to fill its pantry, which is located in a back room of the parish house just north of downtown Temple. It is outfitted with shelves provided by Home Depot and boxes funded by private donations. The pantry has a refrigerator and is in line for a grant for a commercial freezer.
The Missions Committee is dedicated to helping people with everything from school supplies for kids to funding drives for refugees.
Michelle Cohen said, “We always donated to different food banks, so we thought why not have our own.”
Faith Food Pantry is completely a volunteer effort. It will open on Jan. 21, 2017, and be open the third Saturday of every month, and upon appointment request.
