The Holliston Pantry Shelf has new digs.
On December 5th, 2017, the Holliston Pantry Shelf, with a lot of help from local volunteers and businesses, officially moved from its 23 Water Street location in Holliston to a new location at 73 Charles Street.
“It’s a total example of our motto, neighbors helping neighbors,” says Stephen Bradford, Pantry President, who worked on the six-month long process with others on the Holliston Pantry Shelf Board of Directors, Keely Krantz, Dave O’Neill and Bob Nemet.
“Every time our lease term ended for the food pantry, the board would always, as due diligence, review our current lease and consider other options, and that’s really out of respect and gratitude for all the people of Holliston that donate,” says Krantz. “We feel a responsibility to make the right fiscal decisions for the pantry. The lease for Water Street ended at the end of December, and way back in May, we began a process of forming a lease review committee, working with a number of local individuals who donated time on the brokerage side and considering different spaces.”
The new location is located in the lower level of the 100 Central Street building, at the rear. It was custom designed to create significant improvements to the Pantry’s day-to-day operations. “It was pretty exciting to do this, because we were designing a space specifically for the pantry, which wasn’t something that had previously been done,” says Bradford. The goal, he says, was to make it as efficient as possible with modern electrical, heating and air conditioning. “We selected everything from the lights to the flooring to make it a clean and safe place for our customers and for the over 120 residents who volunteer.” Bradford points out that the new layout allows the pantry to leverage BTU’s from the refrigerators and freezers and circulate the air throughout the pantry, which saves on heating bills, and he thanks Griffin Electric, a longtime supporter of the pantry, as well as Tom Chipman, for their effort to make that happen.
Bradford gives a lot of credit to Bob Nemet, Board member and regular pantry volunteer. “We tasked him with handling the build-out process, and he worked with Dick Rossini, a Holliston resident, and with all the other subcontractors to make sure we got in when we wanted to.”
The Holliston Pantry Shelf Board of Directors would like to thank the following businesses and individuals who donated funds, time, materials, or donated or discounted their services to help make this move possible:
Allegeny Contact Flooring, Winchester, MA – Bob Mandile
Anonymous Donor, Holliston, MA
David Birmingham, Holliston, MA - Commercial Real Estate
Definitive Healthcare, Natick, MA -Definitive Cares Team
Foundation for MetroWest, Framingham, MA
Ford Construction Company, Norwell, MA – Steve Smith
Greater Framingham Rotary, Framingham, MA – Kevin Webber
Griffin Electric, Holliston MA - The Griffin Family and Gary Mosca
Holliston True Value Hardware, Holliston, MA – Keith McKeown
Kay and Nat Cleaning, Framingham, MA
New England Household Moving and Storage, Holliston MA – Kevin Carson
MEDITECH, Natick, MA – Sheila Lemke
Rich May Law, Boston, MA - Scott Stokes
Rossini Construction, Holliston, MA -Dick Rossini
Tom Chipman Electrical, Holliston, MA - Tom Chipman
“This move represents a true community effort, with so many local businesses and individuals donating their time, materials and services to help us make the new Pantry a reality,” says Bradford.
“When it came to the day of the move, we were just amazed at the number of members of the community who came out to help us physically move,” says Krantz, pointing out that members of the Holliston Lions came out, as well as the entire Holliston High School varsity hockey team. New England Household Moving and Storage donated two full days of labor to the project, moving refrigerators and freezers.
Jeanine Kelly-Coburn, President of New England Household Moving and Storage, says the company was happy to do it.
“There was an outreach to us through Robert Nemet, who used to coach little league with our office manager Kevin Carson. We decided that it was a total opportunity for our company, because it’s local, it’s obviously an area of need and a well-run organization that does really good work, and it was something that we could and wanted to do. I think everybody that participated felt really good in being able to help.”
Dan Geary, who coaches Holliston High School Varsity Hockey team, says his team, which often asks the community for donations of its own, is always looking for opportunities to give back. The team helped the food pantry at Thanksgiving, with the move, and later, at an elementary school food drive.
“It was a great opportunity for us to do some team-building and create goodwill at the same time,” says Geary.
Response to the new space has been positive, says Bradford. “They like the location, the fact that it’s all new and centrally located. It’s something that not only the clients that we have but our volunteers are pretty proud of, and the people from town, the businesses and the individuals that helped us in this process were just incredible. I can’t thank the community enough for being behind the pantry, not only in this endeavor, but all year long in their support of the pantry. And we’re looking forward to enjoying their support in the future.
If you are interested in supporting the Holliston Pantry Shelf, please visit www.hollistonpantryshelf.org. The Holliston Pantry Shelf is a 501 (c) (3) Non-Profit organization.
Issue Date:
January, 2018
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