Tip O'Neill's Lasting Legacy To Family Pantry
by Jennifer Sexton 

            HARWICH--- “My father taught us from the very beginning that we are our brother’s keeper, and that to whom much is given, much is expected,” says Rosemary O’Neill of her father, longtime Massachusetts congressman Tip O’Neill.

Tip O’Neill is well known for his political career, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years and as Speaker of the House for 10 years, making him the second longest-serving Speaker in U.S. history. Perhaps lesser known is his passion for the Family Pantry of Harwich, for whom he served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from the pantry’s early days until his death in 1994. O’Neill’s wife, Millie, took over the position in his place. When she passed away in 2003, daughter Rosemary took over. The O’Neill family’s support and dedication to the organization over two decades underscores the ‘family’ in Family Pantry.

“We opened 20 years ago this past August, and I think it was within that first year that Tip O’Neill heard about us. From then on he was a regular supporter, and just having his name involved brought a lot of help to us,” says Mary Anderson, executive director of the Family Pantry.

Anderson’s father, George Morris, was one of the founders of Family Pantry. In August of 1989, Morris and six other volunteers from the Holy Trinity Church got together with Father Gabriel Healy to discuss what could be done to help the hungry in the community.

“Father Gabriel said we’ve got to get food to the people away from church property,” Morris recalls. “There’s more than Catholics. There’s a lot of people out there with and without religion who need food, and we don’t care who they are. We should be taking care of everybody.”

Within the first few years of operation, Family Pantry ran into financial trouble for the first time. Tip O’Neill, who had by that time made the O’Neill family’s summer home in Harwich Port into their year-round residence, heard about the pantry’s trouble. He was able to arrange assistance from a friend who worked with the relief organization Feed the Children. Soon a semi truck filled with food arrived to fill the pantry’s shelves and provide meals for the hungry of Cape Cod.

“Since that day, we have never been without food,” says Morris.

Rosemary O’Neill remembers visiting the pantry with her father one year just before Thanksgiving.

“I remember my father and I going and dropping off clothes, which we would do two or three times a year,” she says. “We brought in the clothes and then he went inside to talk to some of the guys. I was sitting out in the car. They had just finished giving out the Thanksgiving turkeys, and this fellow who was really badly disabled, his legs were very deformed, came walking out with two or three bags of groceries, and there was the most beatific smile on his face. And it was like oh, my word, this man is happy beyond happy. It was quite a beautiful sight.”

Tip O’Neill hosted parties at his home to benefit the Family Pantry, a tradition that his son Tom continues to this day. At one such event back in 1991, an unexpected guest arrived after all of the invitations had been delivered and the preparations made— Hurricane Bob. The storm came along six days before the event was scheduled to occur, knocking out electricity and refrigeration. The caterer pulled out, and it seemed that the fundraiser would have to be canceled.

“Dozens and dozens of people were coming, and Dad said we have to do it,” recalls Rosemary. “So we called all our friends, and all of the girls and women got together and started cooking. We got all of our friends to cook, everyone in my family, my sisters-in-law, and we just filled the tables with food and drink and the whole thing worked out. So we made some money for the Family Pantry that day.”

Morris recalls that whenever O’Neill visited the pantry, he always insisted upon meeting and speaking with every client who was there waiting to be helped and thanking every volunteer, even stepping outside to thank a truck driver who delivered food to the warehouse. His enthusiasm for the pantry was contagious, and many others were drawn to help out after hearing about his connection to the organization.

“I remember one day working at the pantry and a man came up to me and asked, ‘Is this Tip O’Neill’s pantry?’ recalls Morris. “I said, ‘Well, you could say that, but it’s the Family Pantry of Harwich.’ ‘But he’s involved in it, right?’ I said, ‘Yes, he is.’ ‘Good,’ he said. He handed me a bill and I thanked him, and it was a fifty-dollar bill. That’s the effect Tip O’Neill had on the pantry. Today we still get donations from all over the country because of him.”

The O’Neill family’s support of the Family Pantry continues into the next generation. In addition to Rosemary’s involvement as Chair of the Board of Trustees, her brother Tom hosts pantry events and contributes to fundraisers by providing auction items and other assistance. Siblings Christopher and Susan own homes in Harwich and consistently contribute to and attend the pantry’s events. Their children, too, volunteer at Family Pantry events.

“I am especially grateful to my brother Tom for his sustained interest in the pantry,” says Rosemary. “He is the one of our siblings that resides in Massachusetts full time, and he has been really watchful of the Family Pantry. I am very grateful for that, and for all of the support that the community has given to the Family Pantry, including The Chronicle. They have always been so wonderful to us in advertising the events we are having.”

Rosemary also thanks Mary Anderson for her work as executive director of the pantry, the volunteers who give so generously of their time and energy, from kids in high school who collect and sort bottles for the pantry’s recycling center to retired people who work at the boutique and thrift shop. She also expresses gratitude to the many performers who have donated their time and talent to entertain at Family Pantry events over the years, and to anyone who has supported and given to the Family Pantry.

“The Family Pantry meets a need,” Rosemary says. “When I saw that man’s face all those years ago when he came out of Family Pantry with that smile all I could think of were some of the big elaborate dinners I have been to in Washington, D.C. Nobody at those dinners had seemed as happy as that man. And that is very important.”

Morris will never forget the last visit Tip O’Neill made to the Family Pantry. It was close to Thanksgiving.

“He said, ‘How are we doing on turkeys, George?’ I said, ‘Well, we’ve still got more demand than we’ve got food.’ And he said, ‘Don’t let anyone go hungry.’ That has stayed with me all these years. Any time the holidays come around, we’ve got to make sure there’s enough for everybody. He was a caring, caring man.”

For more information about the Family Pantry, including how to donate, receive assistance or volunteer, call 508 432-6519, visit www.thefamilypantry.com or send a tax-deductible contribution to 133 Queen Anne Rd., Harwich, MA 02645.

12/03/09