WESTBROOK – While the Westbrook Food Pantry has shifted between several locations in the last decade, a dedicated base of volunteers and community support has grown with the organization’s rising needs.

The pantry, located in the Westbrook Community Center at 426 Bridge St., has recently completed yet another move, this time to a different location within the center’s walls closer to the front of the former school building. The move affords the pantry with updated facilities, the highlight being a $14,000 walk-in cooler and freezer.

While preparing for the pantry to open Tuesday morning, longtime pantry director Jeanne Rielly said the move to the front of the building is more convenient for customers, who can now exit directly to the parking lot.

Rielly said the primary move was made in May, but the organization has been settling in during the last few months. Rielly estimated that it was the sixth move during her 17 years with the Westbrook Food Pantry.

Prior to moving to the Community Center a few years ago, the pantry shifted between temporary locations in the Dana Warp Mill and the former St. Hyacinth school building, recently rehabbed into apartments.

Maria Dorn, the Community Center director, said the pantry’s former space, in the former “band room” of the school, was adequate in size, but lacked ventilation, proper entrances for deliveries, and caused congestion in the surrounding halls due to the presence of pre-K and other programs.

“We wanted a space that was conducive to the mission of the food pantry and its works,” she said Tuesday, adding that the new space adds “direct exterior access.”

Dorn said that due to the new location, the pantry has also added a waiting room for customers arriving before the noontime opening of the pantry.

“The area is off the front doors, so it’s easy to find and the space itself really met the need of the work the food pantry did,” she said. “We make a lot of decisions around who we have as tenants and services. The Community Center is sort of one-stop shopping for a lot of resources.”

Dorn added that this fall, the Community Center’s thrift shop will also move up front. “Wait until you see what we do with the old space,” she said.

According to City Administrator Jerre Bryant, necessary upgrades for the pantry are paid for by a $50,000 fund that was set up for the pantry by the city in 2006. The fund has assisted the organization through multiple moves, the necessary upgrades associated with the moves, and also paid for the recently purchased walk-in cooler.

Rielly said the cooler used in the former space dated back to the former junior high school, and was also shared with other neighboring organizations such as Meals on Wheels.

While walking through the pantry as a client would on Tuesday, Rielly described the selections that clients are allowed during each pantry visit. A number of volunteers were unpacking boxes of bread, produce and canned goods and stacking the new shelves. Rielly said the organization has roughly 50 regular volunteers.

Kay Amabile, a food pantry volunteer for some 15 years, said Tuesday while stocking shelves that she has seen most of the moves the pantry has made. The 82-year-old said while she preferred the openness of the former space, there are advantages of the new location, including the expanded waiting area.

Rielly said there are roughly 500 households registered with the pantry, which requires clients to be residents of Westbrook.

Rielly said as the pantry has grown, due to increased demand, support from local businesses and organizations has also grown. The pantry’s brochure lists a dozen businesses as continued supporters, with Hannaford as the main source of produce donations.

“We are phenomenally supported by the Westbrook community,” she said.

As of May 1, the pantry aligned with Maine’s Good Shepherd Food Bank, which provides food and other items to some 600 nonprofits throughout the state, a move that Rielly said was necessary if the pantry was to continue receiving fresh produce from Hannaford. In March, Hannaford announced it would only provide food to organizations affiliated with Good Shepherd.

“The biggest point to stress is our continual support in every way, shape and form,” she said, stating that the pantry is the recipient of dozens of food drives and substantial cash donations every year.

Last week, Rielly sent a letter to the American Journal, thanking the Westbrook community for their support in the move.

“All of us – the board, the director, the volunteers – who work with clients at the Westbrook Food Pantry wish to express our great appreciation to everyone who made the move to our new facility possible,” she said. “Many people helped with planning, carpentry, wiring, painting, moving of food and equipment, acquiring our new walk-in freezer and cooler, and other aspects of the move from the old pantry to the new one.”

Rielly said that the Community Center is planning to host an open house in the new pantry space on Friday, Aug. 8, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m, in order to see the updated space.

The pantry is open Tuesdays, noon-2 p.m. and 6-7:30 p.m.

From left, Westbrook Food Pantry volunteers Barbara Merrill, Jean Barrett, Kay Amabile, Jeanne Rielly, Fern Labbe and Carol McCurry are pleased with the pantry’s new space within the Westbrook Community Center. The updated facility features a new, $14,000 walk-in cooler and freezer.