Mary Jane Bailey can recall when need began to knock on the door to the rectory at Christ the King Parish.
At first, the church had only simple items to offer in response: loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter and faith that, for the hungry who found themselves bereft of other options, the limited assistance the pantry could provide would multiply in its impact.
“It’s very humbling to have to come to the door and ask for food. It’s hard for people to do that,” she said. “It was better than nothing. They were hungry.”
More than 50 years after the Christ the King Food Pantry opened in 1974, Bailey exuded joy standing in the lobby of the pantry’s new building on South Main Street.
The new Christ the King Food Pantry building introduces a client choice model and centers the dignity of the community it serves. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
Volunteer Coordinator Letitia Borelli embraces volunteer Mary Jane Bailey in the lobby of the new Christ the King Food Pantry building. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
Its spacious and handicap-accessible construction, made possible by a $1 million bequest from a parishioner in 2022, speaks to an offering the pantry has long sought to provide that its clients won’t find shelved beside canned green beans or refrigerated bacon: the gift of dignity.
“We’re not a charity outfit, we’re a dignity outift,” said Ignatius MacLellan, a volunteer of 38 years and member of the pantry’s three-person leadership team. “We put dignity at the front. When you come in the door now, instead of waiting outside, we have the porch. It may just look like a porch, but that’s for dignity.”
The previous building, torn down at the same location in late October of last year, was rickety, dilapidated and cramped. The pantry’s nearly 130 volunteers executed its mission in spite of many obstacles: Volunteers could assist only one family at a time, while others waited their turn outdoors. No food preparation area existed, and at his height, MacLellan couldn’t manage even to crouch under the basement’s low ceilings.
Ignatius MacLellan, a member of the three-person leadership team at the Christ the King Food Pantry, thanks an audience at the new building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
A needlepoint by Teresa Downing, who bequeathed the Christ the King Food Pantry $1 million in 2022, hangs in the new building’s meeting room. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
And without ramps, the building was inaccessible to handicapped clients. MacLellan wept when people in wheelchairs traversed the city to reach the building and couldn’t come in.
Changes to the new building, inaugurated quietly on Monday after a nearly year-long temporary relocation behind Sanel NAPA Auto Parts a few blocks away, are beyond cosmetic.
The pantry itself will be moving toward a client choice, or grocery-style, model. In the past, volunteers have bundled together pre-assembled food packages in brown paper bags for clients to pick up. The client choice model allows people to decide for themselves which food items they need most and are most likely to eat.
The ranch-style building is laid out on one level, with ramp access for disabled clients. It includes a confidential interviewing room that will be available for two legal groups offering pro-bono assistance, the Gospel Justice Center, a national coalition of lawyers, and Shepherd’s Call Legal Aid, a group of local attorneys based in Bow.
Canned food items stock the shelves at Christ the King Food Pantry. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
Many people who are hungry, said Ed Lovejoy, who has been a volunteer with his wife Terry for the past 28 years, also have other invisible needs.
The pantry keeps a stock of personal hygiene and household items that SNAP/EBT recipients cannot use their federally-issued food stamps to purchase, but oftentimes, volunteers lacked the resources and knowledge to help any further with issues like housing instability or legal troubles.
“We’ve been asked several times, ‘Well, I don’t have money for rent. Where can we go?’ I had a veteran come in with his wife and ask, ‘We’ve used up all of our benefits. What’s available to us?’ And we don’t know,” he said. “So, these connections will be very important for our clients.”
At the new building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, volunteers gathered to celebrate the generosity of faithful parishioners and community partners who brought the long-envisioned building to fruition.
Funding for the $2.55 million construction began with a $1 million bequest from Teresa Downing, a late parishioner whom Bailey met as a teacher’s aid in her classroom at the Abbot-Downing School in Concord.
Other funding came from the food pantry’s own savings of about $400,000, a $250,000 donation from the Diocese of Manchester and over $900,000 in donations from Christ the King parishioners raised over the course of the last year.
Father Richard Roberge prays to conclude his remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Christ the King’s new food pantry building. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
Crystal Proulx, a parishioner and food pantry volunteer, listens to remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Christ the King Food Pantry building. Credit: Rebeca Pereira / Monitor
Speaking to an audience of several dozen attendees under a green tent, Father Richard Roberge, who pastors the parish, emphasized that “respect and dignity is the key.”
“We as Christ the King Parish, as Catholics, do this in the name of Jesus. But we partner with those of other faiths and traditions, regardless of their beliefs and circumstances, for we are all members of the human family, brothers and sisters possessing the dignity in our person,” he said.
MacLellan spoke emotionally about the project.
“I’m so proud to be a parishioner of this parish, and I’m so proud to be a Catholic today,” MacLellan said. “This is one of our pilgrimages of hope. We had people who believed that if they put in money, effort, time and talent, we would have something to be together and work with our community. It’s taken so long to get here, really long, but we’ve done it.”
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