Volunteers with the Perry Food Pantry and laborers from several local churches — a collective affectionately called the Hole in the Wall Gang — joined forces Friday and Saturday to move the pantry’s food stock and shelving to its new location at 3000 Willis Ave., the former site of the Rowley Masonic Home.
The new pantry home, referred to by volunteers as “the annex,” will open Tuesday, Dec. 19, thanks to a three-year agreement inked last week between the Perry Area Emergency Food Council, which operates the pantry, and the Rowley Memorial Masonic Community.
Food pantry clients will access the pantry through the Willis Avenue entrance of the old Masonic Home and will pass through to rooms on the north side of the building. The pantry will occupy 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.
The food pantry will be open Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 1-3:30 p.m. Clients will receive a pantry voucher from New Opportunities and take it to the food pantry.
New Opportunities will provide services in its new quarters at 1212 Second St., with food needs being met by the Perry Area Food Pantry, clothing needs by the First Christian Church’s Clothes Closet and low-cost sundries at the New Hope Village in its new shop at 912 Center St.
