A few months ago, when Sarah Harrington contacted me and asked if I would be an advocate for the Cambridge Food Pantry, I was surprised. I didn’t know her; we had never met or spoken, and I had never set foot in the town’s food pantry, even though I’d driven past it a thousand times.
I knew little about food pantries besides that they were usually located in warehouses and had a reputation for being overwhelmed, underfunded, and mostly grim experiences. One of my neighbors went to food pantries and found them hostile and condescending. He said it was uncomfortable going in there; he was always grilled about income and in public, and it was take it or leave it. Most pantries have severe limits on their food, and there is no such thing as choice or requests.
Nobody asked what people wanted; they had to take what was there. People were often grilled about their income and employment, leaving many feeling shame and a loss of dignity.
Sarah, who has worked in the media, food distribution, design, and tech, had significant new ideas, which is why she was hired.
She wanted to change the whole concept of a food pantry, to bring the good-hearted but old pantry into the modern era.
When hired earlier this year, she became the first director of the food pantry to have e-mail; she got a blog and some social media going quickly.
She set out to make the old and dark pantry bright and friendly. I took to her and her ideas right away. What’s the most important thing you want to do, I asked. She mentioned a dozen; I liked all of them: make the pantry a bright and colorful place, much like a modern market.
She wanted to treat her patrons with dignity, asking them what they wanted to see on the shelves and making them comfortable, not interrogating or monitoring them. She couldn’t promise people would get what they missed and wanted, but she would surely try hard. This became one of my tasks, I guessed.
Sarah is astonishingly frugal and wise with funds. One of the first things she did was to build a new office by herself – she did this in three days – that is bright, clean, and cheerful. Best of all, she put in a small sofa so newcomers to the pantry didn’t have to talk about their incomes and savings in front of other people. I told her the way I thought I might help was to raise some of the food the members wanted but that the pantry couldn’t afford to buy for them. We’ve been very successful in that.
I love all of her ideas, new and old. I not only enjoy working for her, I am proud to be working for here. I know another such angel – Sue Silverstein, the art teacher at Bishop Gibbons in Schenectady, N.Y. She is also a hero to me; she is all about giving dignity and direction, and respect to young people. Sarah wants to do the same thing for people who find themselves in the awful place of food deprivation. They have at least one here here.
(Sarah’s new office: She built it herself. The old office was joyless, lightless, and ugly. I never saw anyone go in it. She fixed it up with her own tools and paints and had no help I haven’t seen anyone yet who can do all the things she can do, not even Maria.)
I admire Sarah quite a bit; we text back and forth all night hours, and she immediately understands why photographs are so crucial to the work I want to do. People need to give money more easily to people than institutions. I told her that donors want to give money to people and know where it went and what it is for. They want a say in what they buy. I’ve been using Amazon Wish Lists to raise money for older people and refugee aid for some years; Sarah jumped at the idea and gave me the go-ahead for photographs (I always ask for permission). We were off and running. She put me to work right away. We’ve raised tens of thousands of food for the pantry and are filling some of the problematic holes to fill. Her idea was to leave the wish list up day and night so people could donate what they wanted at any time of the day, night, or week. Lots of people do.
Sarah has brightened the pantry building with paint, murals, new lights, and wall coloring. There’s a beautiful new pantry sign out front.
The members love her office’s privacy and getting things like Tide soap, Campbell Soup, and their favorite salads, which they sorely missed.
We’ve also helped with tampons, dental pastes, diapers, and cereal. Most pantries don’t have the funds to offer all of these things.
We have become friends who enjoy working with each other. She raised money for a new truck to transport food from the state food bank. She works day and night and knows every nook and corner of the Facebook Marketplace. The volunteers who keep the pantry going are deeply impressed with the improvements and her plans. From what I read and heard, the Cambridge Food Pantry is already one of the country’s best and most innovative pantries. I love working with her and her fantastic squadron of dedicated volunteers. She knows how to manage people and treat her customers respectfully and with dignity. I am honored to be volunteering there.
(She is constantly brightening up the food distribution room.)
She’s repainted the walls, brought in new LED lights, and carpeted the floors to make the experience comfortable and familiar, not cold or rushed.
I asked Sara what she was thinking about respecting the dignity of people who were often ashamed to come to a food pantry and worried about their children.
“I’ve tried to make the food pantry welcome with a positive vibe,” she told me. “People are greeted with smiles and usually cookies. We help new people through the process so there is no confusion. The shopping is with a cart in a well-lit mini-mart-looking area. People are helped to their cars if needed. Men of the guests have been through a lot or are currently dealing with a lot, so we try to be gentle with our care.”
Sarah’s idea is to have one of the country’s best, if not the best, food pantries. She is off to a blazing start.
“The office and sofa are for the guests,” she told me. “It provides a calm, comfortable space to do new intakes to keep information private. Usually, new people are nervous about coming to the pantry, and that area puts their minds at ease so they can talk freely about their situation. Our normal intake desk is in the waiting room, where people can overhear. Also, it works if anyone has other concerns that need to be addressed. Before that, we used to go into a hallway…”
(A pantry window. Every space is used quickly.)
Sarah is doing more things than I can even list; her mind is going round the clock. I am dedicated to the pantry for the energy, empathy, and dedication they show the people who come to her for help during challenging times in their lives. I’m grateful for every minute of the work I do for them; it is a beautiful cause, and I thank all of you for supporting me.
While you’re here, please consider going to the Cambridge Pantry Amazon Wish List. You can browse or donate anytime, day or night. You can also go to the green bottom at the bottom of every one of my blog posts: it says Cambridge Food Pantry. You can’t miss it, and thanks.
