We’ve all heard it: “When one door closes, another opens.”
What seems disappointing or the end of one opportunity, often leads to a different, better, outcome.
That’s true for Homes with Hope — literally.
Last month, their food pantry at the Gillespie Center closed for renovation. They had to find a new place to serve scores of hungry Westporters.
They moved to the Sasco Creek Village community center, at 1655 Post Road East.
Warm and welcoming food pantry, at Sasco Creek Village.
The new site is bigger. It’s brighter.
It’s fresher too — and not just metaphorically. With room now for a refrigerator and freezer, the food pantry can stock meat, bread and other perishable items.
That’s opened up whole new, and healthy, possibilities for food-insecure clients.
Ever since the new doors opened, they’ve raved about the big, bright, fresh Homes with Hope pantry.
The shelves in the community center contain everything the former location did: canned soups and stews, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, tuna fish, crackers, pasta sauce, rice, granola bars, baby food and the like.
But there’s also — in addition to all those fruits, vegetables, eggs and more — a gluten-free section.
Plenty of food in the new pantry.
Volunteers — those who donate food, and those who donate time — have always been the backbone of Homes with Hope’s pantry. All are excited about what they can donate, and give away, now.
The refrigerator was donated by the Aspetuck Health District. It had been used to store COVID vaccines.
Now that items can be kept for more than a day or two, staffers plan ahead. They print up and hand out recipes, using the healthful ingredients they know are on hand.
Recipes, using ingredients available at the pantry.
“We can now offer what people want — not what we thought they wanted,” says Katharine Murray, Homes with Hope’s senior director of marketing and development. “They really, really love the fresh foods. Now they’re ‘shopping,’ not just ‘taking.'”
Another addition: toiletries like toothpaste, razors and shaving foam; feminine hygiene products, and cleaning items. Those are vital to people on limited budgets — but not covered for those using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called “food stamps”).
Shoppers register once, using a short form that includes questions like family size. There is no formal income verification process. About 90 different individuals have come since the pantry relocated last month.
Clients can shop once a week. Food pantries elsewhere often limit shoppers to once a month, Murray says.
Homes with Hope marketing executive Katharine Murray (left) and CEO Helen McAlinden, with food donation.
The new location has opened up the pantry to new clients. Many come from Sasco Creek Village itself. Some use wheelchairs.
But longtime clients are served well too. Sasco Creek — one of 4 sites run by the Westport Housing Authority — is on the Coastal Link bus line, opposite Goodwill. There is plenty of parking.
That’s great for people dropping off food, as well as those picking up.
As it has since its inception decades ago, the pantry draws many donors. Some are loyal, like “Miss Jane.” She’s dropped off several bags, several days a week, for years, and continues to do so.
Trader Joe’s has become a generous donor at the new site. They’ve been very generous, with fresh vegetables, eggs, fruits and corn, and frozen meats and vegetables.
The new freezer and refrigerator, filled with healthful food. (All photos/Dan Woog)
The pantry is open to clients and donors from 1 to 4 p.m. every weekday, except Wednesday.
People sometimes stand outside at 1:00.
They are grateful that although the Gillespie Center pantry door closed last month, the new one at Sasco Creek Village opened.
Homes with Hope CEO Helen McAlinden and 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker (front row, 3rd and 4th from left), with staffers and officials at last month’s ribbon-cutting.
