Keeping The Warehouse Humming At The Family Pantry

NORTH HARWICH – Clients who visit the Family Pantry of Cape Cod see the lobby and the intake area, as well as a small boutique stocked with used clothing. What they don’t see is the 12,000- square foot warehouse on the other side of the door, where volunteers and staff hustle to make sure there’s food available every time the Pantry is open for clients.

 Overseeing the operation is Warehouse Manager Gary Isgur, helped by Assistant Manager Bill Kreussling and a crew of around 100 volunteers, mostly working behind the scenes to keep the operation humming. That’s no small feat for the largest nonprofit food pantry on Cape Cod.

 “We probably have a hundred thousand pounds of food in this building on a weekly basis,” Isgur said. And managing that inventory is as much art as it is science. It’s not just about making sure there’s a wide variety of nutritious, culturally appropriate food for the thousands of clients who depend on the Pantry; it’s also about making sure every donated dollar is well spent.

 Unlike smaller pantries, the Family Pantry regularly offers fresh produce and perishable dairy products, which need to be carefully monitored for freshness. 

“We try to keep a pretty tight line on that,” Isgur said. “I don’t like to throw anything away, and we very, very rarely do.” While the Pantry’s warehouse is very large, with a forklift used to hoist pallets of food on racks that are three tiers high, space still has to be planned carefully, particularly in the bank of walk-in refrigerators and freezers. 

 Dry goods like pasta, rice and canned foods are simpler to store, but these staples still require careful inventorying and planning. Knowing how much to order means having to estimate how many clients will visit in a given week, which varies just enough to make Isgur wish he had a crystal ball. “I don’t want to have perishables that we have to throw away. And then again, if there’s a line down the street, we want to make sure we have enough for everybody that comes to the door.”

 And how does the Pantry plan for emergencies like unexpected surges in demand?

 “The good thing is that we have a lot of storage. We have a lot of freezer space and we have a lot of racking, so I always try, of all the non-perishable items and anything I can freeze, to have a back-stock,” he said. Having extra supplies on hand also means that the Family Pantry can sometimes ride out price fluctuations for certain items, ordering when the prices are lowest. Many of the items stocked by the Pantry come for free from the U.S.Department of Agriculture, but other items have to be purchased through the Greater Boston Food Bank or local vendors. Sometimes, key staple items like hamburger will be free one week, but costly the next. Isgur keeps an eagle eye on the online ordering portal.

 “I have to watch that portal throughout the day [and sometimes overnight] because different items become available,” he said. Isgur has been known to be on his computer in the wee hours to make sure the Family Pantry only pays what’s absolutely necessary for the food it provides. That means that each donated dollar gets stretched further. It’s a point of pride for Isgur, “but it’s also the bane of my existence,” he said with a chuckle.

 That large warehouse — equipped with generators in case of a power outage — not only serves the Family Pantry, but other area food pantries as well. Twice a week, 18-wheelers arrive from Greater Boston Food Bank, bringing 33,000 pounds of food for the Family Pantry on Friday, and another 6,000 pounds on Monday. But the remainder of that Monday delivery is for other food pantries, which take advantage of the Family Pantry’s large warehouse for food deliveries to be sorted and distributed to other organizations. It means that every weekend, the large loading dock area has to be cleared out for Monday’s cross-dock operation, and every Tuesday everything gets put back in its place for the remainder of the week. It’s a logistical challenge, but it’s also a great use of the Pantry’s warehouse.

 Despite the behind-the-scenes hustle needed to keep the shelves stocked at the Family Pantry, Isgur said he never loses track of why the warehouse is important. He’s often checking to gauge the number of clients in line and visits the front of the house.

 “That’s when I get to see the families, you know, the smiles on people’s faces,” he said. There’s a lot of gratitude for the food, but also for the clothing the Pantry offers. “Maybe they’re recent immigrants, and they come from a warm climate, and they don’t have cold weather coats and boots for their kids. And to see the mom’s face or the dad’s face, being able to get that. That’s when you go, this is why we’re here.”

To contribute to The Chronicle's Summertime Helping Neighbors campaign, click here. You can also mail a tax-deductible contribution to The Family Pantry, 133 Queen Anne Rd., Harwich, MA 02645, or call 508-432-6519 to donate by credit card.