Volunteers with the Perry Food Pantry have settled into a smooth routine after six weeks in their new location at 3000 Willis Ave., the former site of the Rowley Masonic Home.
“We still need to get the carpeting up and some new flooring down,” said Lou Hoger, Perry Food Pantry coordinator, “and the HVAC needs an upgrade, but we’re open for business and getting more donations than ever.”
The new pantry home, referred to by volunteers as “the annex,” opened Dec. 19 thanks to the labors of a collective affectionately called the Hole in the Wall Gang, who joined forces Dec. 15-16 to move the pantry’s food stock and shelving from the former New Opportunities grounds to the new location.
The food pantry is open Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 1-3:30 p.m. Clients first receive a pantry voucher from New Opportunities and then take it to the food pantry.
The Rowley Memorial Masonic Community donated the space in its former facility for the pantry’s use as part of a three-year agreement signed in December with the Perry Area Emergency Food Council, which operates the pantry.
Food pantry clients access the pantry through the Willis Avenue entrance of the old Masonic Home and pass through to rooms on the north side of the building. The pantry occupies an area formerly used as a guest apartment for residents’ family members. Before that, it was used as an assisted living unit and probably originated as a caretaker’s dwelling.
New Opportunities now provides its wide array of services, such as heating assistance, financial literacy consulting and family development services, from its new quarters at 1212 Second St., with clothing needs still being met by the First Christian Church’s Clothes Closet and low-cost sundries at the New Hope Village in its shop at 912 Center St.
