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Pantry
COntinuED frOm PAGE 9
Cape Cod Ski Club and also serves
on two Cape Cod Foundation review
committees: grants and scholarships.
Don sees his involvement with nonprofits
as a way to give back.
He’s not the only one who feels
that way. One of the founders of the
Family Pantry was Mary Anderson’s
father, George Morris, who served as
president of the board for 10 years.
George was a construction manager
for Verizon before he retired and
moved to the Cape some 30 years
ago. Mary worked for Verizon also,
as a construction director. “My
father jokes,” says
Mary, “that he retired
before he wound
up working for me.”
George, now 85,
continues to serve on
the pantry board and
manages the cavernous12,000-squarefoot
warehouse. He
is currently at home
recuperating from
heart surgery, but remains
active. “Believe
me,” says Mary, “he
is still directing me
from his chair in the
living room.”
The pantry receives 40 percent
of its food from the USDA-backed
Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB)
and the Massachusetts Emergency
Food Assistance Plan (MEFAP).
The pantry warehouse serves as the
major drop-off point for the Cape.
Other pantries come here to pick
up their allotments. Walking past
the floor-to-ceiling pallets of food
and non-perishable goods that have
been delivered, one is struck by the
amount of work required to keep the
donations organized and the pantry
shelves stocked.
“We have a forklift and several
volunteers are trained to use it,” says
Mary, “and we just added a part-time
warehouse supervisor, Bill Baldwin.”
There are mostly seniors, busy
opening crates and stocking shelves.
Mary smiles, “Most of our regular
volunteers are in the 60-and-older
demographic.”
That includes Mary. Retired in
2000, Mary was working part-time
in a second career when the job of
❝
Most of our
regular volunteers
are in the
60-and-older
demographic.
MARY ANDERSON,
ExECUTIVE DIRECTOR
THE FAMIlY PANTRY,
HARWICH
executive director opened. A volunteer
at the pantry who knew Mary
suggested she apply. “You would be
very good,” she prophesied. Mary
interviewed and in 2005 got the
position. “So I followed my dad
twice,” Mary says, referring to her
career with Verizon, then her move
to the Cape to take the pantry job.
Speaking of her father’s legacy, Mary
points out that his energy, sense of
humor and knack for working with
everyone from kids to seniors is what
helped the pantry grow over the
past 22 years. On this busy Tuesday
morning, minutes before the pantry
opens to clients, volunteers occupy
three of the four desks in Mary’s
small office. It is obvious that Mary
has inherited George’s skill for working
with people.
The pantry has
more than 230 volunteers
who work
regular weekly hours,
and another 100 who
volunteer on a random
basis. Organizations
that volunteer include
University of Massachusetts,
Harwich
High School and Cape
Cod Regional Technical
School alumni
association, the Post
Office, and the Irving
Mobil in Dennisport,
which, along with the
Harwich and Dennis
transfer stations, provides a drop-off
point for recycling cans and bottles –
a $30,000 annual revenue stream for
the pantry.
Unlike most charitable organizations,
the 80/20 rule (80 percent
of funds come from 20 percent of
donors) does not apply here. The
largest portion of financial support
(48 percent) comes from individual
donations, another testament to
Mary’s ability to work with a wide
range of people. Other sources of
income are grants, the thrift shop,
events and sales of grocery store gift
cards.
An astonishing 900 individuals are
served by the pantry every week.
Most families have already qualified
for a government assistance program
such as food stamps or WIC.
If they are new, there is a confidential
interview and the pantry uses
the Federal poverty guidelines for
qualifying clients (approximate annual
income is $19,000 for a single,
PRIMETIMECAPECOD.com 17
$40,000 for a family of four). The
pantry staff also helps the clients apply
for food stamps and directs them
to other food programs in their area
when appropriate. Instead of prebagging
groceries, as smaller pantries
do, Mary points out that the pantry
is able to offer a choice to clients. In
addition to packaged foods and fresh
produce, Mary opens a large refrigerator/freezer
to show an abundance
of cheese, eggs and frozen meats.
Added to the food delivered by the
GBFB, 25 percent is donated by individuals,
stores or food drives. The
remaining 35 percent is purchased
with pantry funds by Mary, her
father or one of the other volunteer
shoppers. “We call one of our volunteers
the Jelly Man,” says Mary. “Ted
and Clare Monac find items on sale
and purchase them on our behalf,
like cases of jelly for 99 cents a jar.”
The paid staff is small, says Mary.
“We have tried to keep to the
(founders’) three guiding principals:
to be open to anyone, donations of
money would be used to buy food
and we would be all volunteerbased.
We have been able to remain
true to the first two, but in 2004, we
created the paid executive director
position and in 2010 we added two
part-time staff.”
Mary enjoys the flexibility of her
job, but says it consumes her every
waking hour. In addition to her position
with the pantry, Mary, along
with the director of the Falmouth
Food Bank, co-chairs the Cape
Cod Hunger Network, an informal
coalition of feeding programs on the
Cape.
Asked about hobbies, Mary lists
quilting, mah-jongg, reading and
traveling. She and her husband,
Bob, who retired from a career in
information technology and now
operates a handyman business in
Harwich, enjoyed a Mediterranean
cruise last year and are planning
one to Alaska this fall. Mary is also
looking forward to a girlfriends’
getaway to Charleston and Savannah.
Her overriding interest, like her
father’s, is her family, her son and
daughter, 31 and 34 respectively, and
her grandsons. Her brother has two
grandchildren also, making George a
great-grandfather to four boys.
“He’s working on a baseball team,”
Mary laughs. Or maybe the next
generation of Family Pantry directors.