Plainfield food pantry has a new home - Norwich Bulletin

Plainfield food pantry has a new home - Norwich Bulletin

PLAINFIELD – A Plainfield food pantry is getting a second lease on life thanks to the generosity of a local developer.

The Project PIN Food Pantry is expected next month to move from its current location into a renovated space in the Village Center Circle plaza, Director Tim Kettle said.

“Our families will not have to worry how they are going to feed their children,” Kettle said. “We are alive and well. We are really excited about the location and the availability to our patrons.”

The pantry, which serves hundreds of Plainfield and Sterling families every month, was in danger of losing its long-time spot inside the basement of the All Hallows School on Prospect Street after church officials who own the building threatened to raise the group’s rent.

For more than 10 years, Project PIN ran its pantry operation from inside the school. About three weeks ago, All Hallows Church's parish priest, the Rev. Tadeusz Zadorozny, contacted Kettle to inform him that a planned consolidation of several local church programs would require a jump in rent from $500 to $3,000 a month.

Soon after The Bulletin reported the issue, Kettle said developer Bill Couture reached out and offered space a short distance from the current site.

“I knew Tim from local chamber events and mentioned to him that I might have a space,” said Couture, a property developer and community loan officer for Jewett City Savings Bank.

Couture bought the 94-year-old three-floor building in November which will eventually include an upper-level apartment and three businesses. Under a three-year lease agreement – renewable for another three years - the pantry will pay $725 in rent for use of the 4,000-square-foot ground floor area.

“If I rented that space for commercial use, I’d likely charge around $1,000 a month in rent, but based on how much good this group does for the community, it made sense to offer it to the pantry,” Couture said. "The second floor of the building was an old dance hall and theater so there's a ton of history here."

An electrician on Tuesday was to begin swapping fluorescent lights with more efficient LED models. Couture said old carpeting will be torn up and a new coat of white paint will be laid onto walls.

“Again, everything happens for a reason,” Kettle said. “When one door closes, another opens. We had a few hiccups along the way, but thanks to Mr. Couture’s generosity and civic interest in our community, we will be settled in our new home soon.”

Kettle said there is some work to be done at the site and the move comes at a particularly important time for the pantry’s clients. He said walls will be erected to compartmentalize the group’s distribution and storage work with an eye toward opening sometime after July 18.

“Children are out of school for the summer and don’t have the advantage of school lunch programs,” he said. “It’s just blown me away how fast everything is coming together.”