Quincy nonprofit pushes to open $2.3 million food pantry in Brewers Corner
QUINCY – Renovations at a Brewers Corner building are underway as Quincy Community Action Programs pushes toward the finish line of a $2.3 million project that will significantly expand its food pantry.
"We've had to expand our food and nutrition services since the pandemic. The needs are tremendous," Beth Ann Strollo, director of the nonprofit, said. "We are serving more people in our food center than we ever have before. ... We're really excited about this building."
The building, at 18 Copeland St., has three times the square footage of what the pantry has now, Strollo said. The nonprofit bought the building in January for $1.2 million and has made it accessible,updated the loading dock and added an indoor waiting area for clients. The renovations are almost done.
Quincy Community Action Programs has run a food pantry in Southwest Quincy for more than 50 years, and originally operated out of a building at 388 Granite St. That building had plenty of space, but the nonprofit decided to convert it into affordable housing for formerly homeless families about 10 years ago. The organization has been renting space at 1 Copeland St. ever since.
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"As soon as we moved in, we realized the space was totally too small for us, but we wanted to stay in that Southwest Quincy/Brewers Corner neighborhood," Strollo said. "We've been looking for a new space for more than a decade."
"We are going to be able to provide some wraparound services for clients in addition to the food services, which we're really excited about," Strollo said. "We're going to be doing family engagement activities there, and we'll have fuel assistance staff there, housing staff periodically, free tax preparation services. It'll be a really excellent, one-stop-shopping service center."
Quincy Community Action Programs is in its final fundraising push for the project and has raised almost $2.1 million of the $2.3 million needed to complete the project. The organization received the bulk of the money from corporate sponsors, state grants and the city, which gave $300,000 in federal COVID relief money.
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"This is going to help the lowest income residents of the city with food security," Strollo said. "The state Legislature has allocated various resources, and we have been able to raise almost $2.1 million through grants and other sponsors. We've just put the word out to raise the balance of the project cost, and hopefully we will."
Renovations at new space started in June and are expected to wrap up by the end of the month. The pantry is waiting on its delivery of a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, and Strollo said she hopes to move by October.
Quincy Community Action Programs is projected to have helped 4,700 people with food access by the end of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, and Strollo estimates the pantry will have 5,000 visitors next year – which represents about 5% of the city's population and the largest number the nonprofit has ever served.
"We've had tremendous support for this," she said of the food pantry expansion.
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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Nonprofit pushes to open $2.3 million food pantry in Southwest Quincy
