Through Community Outreach, Family Pantry’s Services Spread Far Beyond Harwich Headquarters

HARWICH – The Family Pantry of Cape Cod is located inside a warehouse in North Harwich.

But to say that the pantry and its services are contained only within that building would be highly inaccurate. Through various forms of community outreach, the pantry’s impact spreads far and wide throughout the region.

For example, the pantry actually operates a satellite location at Cape Cod Community College for students, faculty and staff. The pantry is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Clients who use the satellite location at the college, which includes produce and shelf-stable items, are encouraged to also utilize the main pantry in Harwich.

“You can go between the two pantries,” said Melissa Masi, the nonprofit organization’s program manager. “We do not mind at all.”

It’s not just the academic community in West Barnstable that the pantry serves outside Harwich, though. The organization additionally operates Healthy Meals in Motion, a mobile food pantry.

The program travels to councils on aging from Yarmouth to Provincetown, as well as Cape Cod Children’s Place in Eastham and Helping Our Women in Provincetown and Eastham. 

Healthy Meals in Motion serves 50 to 55 clients per town on average each month, according to Masi. Clients are vetted by councils on aging, so they don’t have to come to Harwich to get started.

“You just call your council on aging office to get the list,” Masi said. “It is the same shopping list that you would use here at the Family Pantry. It's the same exact process. You pick out what you want, and we pack it here and we bring it to the council on aging.”

For someone living in, say, Provincetown, Healthy Meals in Motion saves a two-hour roundtrip to Harwich and back to pick up food.

“It's fantastic, especially for the elderly, who might not be able to drive any longer or have health needs that they can't get themselves here to get food,” Masi said. “Again, it's the same exact food as if you were in, face to face with us.”

Family Pantry of Cape Cod has also formed regional partnerships via collaborations with other local organizations. Just down the street from the pantry, for instance, is a facility of the Housing Assistance Corporation.

“We welcome those clients,” Masi said. “They will call and tell us that they're bringing clients over so that we can work with them and communicate with them. We reach out when we have extras in our building.”

The pantry has a similar relationship with Mass Appeal, a nonprofit in Wellfleet that provides free clothing to Outer Cape families, and likes to support the Brazilian Resource Center in South Yarmouth, according to Masi. Family Pantry reaches out when they have extra supplies, particularly clothing and gifts.

Another collaboration exists between the pantry and the Cape Cod Hunger Network, a regional organization.

“I personally just learned such incredible things from them of what other people are doing on the Cape, where we can fill gaps versus stepping on people's toes, how we all work together,” Masi said.

With each organization serving its own specific role and purpose within the community, these partnerships are eminently important in providing all-encompassing services for the area’s less fortunate.

“We each have a job to help, especially citizens who are in need,” Masi said. “We all fulfill our own special. We've got food. We've got food and housewares and clothing, and that's what we can do for you.

“We can do one thing,” Masi said, “and we do it very well, and we will make sure that you are not hungry, that you will not leave this building without food, and we can refer you to the other groups.”

Thanks to the generosity of our readers, The Chronicle’s Summertime Helping Neighbors campaign has exceeded its $110,000 goal (see donor list). But that doesn’t mean we’re done. The campaign will remain active through Labor Day in order to raise as much money as possible to help the pantry make it through the inevitable fall surge. If you’ve donated already, thank you. If not, please help us push this summer’s total even higher.