While the focus on the Central Baptist food pantry will be refrigerated and frozen items, as well as toiletries, which are not provided at St. Mark, shelves of nonperishable food, left, will provide redundancy to the Catholic church. Below, the logo for the Jamestown Community Food Pantry.
While the five W’s typically refer to newspaper reporting, there are 55,000 families in Rhode Island who ask those questions every day about their next meal.
What will I eat? When will it be? Where will it come from?
Starting Tuesday, Central Baptist Church will have an answer.
The Jamestown Community Food Pantry, a nonprofit corporation established in January, will unveil its pantry after 15 months of groundwork. Although it is housed in the basement at 99 Narragansett
Ave., the secular organization operates independently.
“It stands on its own,” said the Rev. Kurt Satherlie, rector at Central Baptist.
While Satherlie does not sit on the board of directors, he does have an intimate connection to the project. Before the Rev. Kevin Lloyd departed St. Matthew’s in July 2018, Satherlie approached his fellow clergyman about expanding support to their hungry neighbors. Although the food pantry at St. Mark offers nonperishable items, the meat and potatoes were missing.
As administrator of the Kit Wright Fund, which provides the churches with money to donate at their discretion, Satherlie was a firsthand witness to this void. The community needed a food pantry that went beyond rice, cereal and canned corn, he said. The road to get there, however, had more speed bumps than anticipated.
“I didn’t know it was like an act of Congress,” Satherlie said. “Fortunately, we have had so many wonderful people step up.”
A committee of about two dozen members was formed to deal with the red tape that spanned all three levels of government, from the local zoning chief to the state Department of Health to the Internal Revenue Service.
“We feel really good that we accomplished all of this,” said Southwest Avenue’s Deb Nordstrom, co-chair of the committee. “It was a challenge.”
When it opens for business Tuesday, visitors will see a freezer filled with meats alongside a refrigerator filled with milk, cheese, butter and eggs. There also is a second refrigerator exclusively for fresh produce, including crisp lettuce and ripe tomatoes from the Jamestown Community Farm.
Across from the three machines are shelves stocked with nonperishable staples, from soup to salt, and a closet will have home essentials like deodorant, shampoo and toilet paper. The organizers also plan to supply animal food for pet owners.
While the hours are not finalized, Nordstrom said the plan is to open roughly 10 times per month. After visiting food panties in neighboring communities, she said having customers establish regular appointment times is the most efficient way to operate.
While customers have to complete paperwork on their first visit, Nordstrom said these demographic questions are required for the pantry to be eligible for grants. It also is needed for the pantry to become partners with the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
“We’ve talked a lot about confidentiality,” Satherlie said. “We’re going to be as private as we can. We want to make sure everybody’s dignity is intact. It’s hard for anybody to ask for something, and we realize that.”
Like any nonprofit venture, volunteers and donors are essential to the pantry’s success. Nordstrom said they need greeters, shoppers, cleaners, stockers and distributers. Along with nonperishable donations, the group also needs money so it can purchase meat and dairy products.
To that end, a scramble tournament is scheduled for Aug. 17 at the Jamestown Golf Course. Players can register by calling Barbara Szepatowski at 354- 9200. Organizers also are in the process of establishing a phone number, 560-4080, and website, JamestownPantry.com, which should be up any day.
“All good things take time,” Nordstrom said.
