SALEM — St. Joseph's Food Pantry, one of the largest free food distribution programs on the North Shore, is moving out of a Catholic church in the heart of the downtown and into an old manufacturing building across the North River.
The move will sever the pantry's last symbolic tie with the Catholic Church and locate it about a mile from the low-income parish neighborhood where it began.
Veann Campbell, the volunteer director of a program that serves about 2,000 individuals a month, said she has signed a lease at 13 Franklin St. and hopes to open there in a few weeks. In the interim, she said the pantry will continue to operate out of the basement of Immaculate Conception Church on Hawthorne Boulevard.
Campbell praised the Rev. Timothy Murphy, pastor of Immaculate Conception, for allowing the pantry to stay there rent-free the past six years but said it is time to move.
"They've been very kind to us," she said. "We just really outgrew the space, and they have future plans of doing some renovations."
Immaculate Conception has no immediate plans, Murphy said, but may need the church basement if it sells the former parochial school next door, a building that currently houses church offices and is used for religious education classes and functions. The Hawthorne Boulevard building is also the home of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem.
"We're seriously considering selling the school (building)," Murphy said. "We don't have any money to repair it." He estimated repairs at $1 million. "If we lose that, we would have to use the downstairs of the church, but there is nothing imminent."
Also aware of the church's situation, the Boys & Girls Club recently formed a committee to look at its options.
Immaculate Conception "did let us know that was their intention, and that did spur us into action," said Joanne Scott, executive director of the club.
Campbell said she has been looking for a new home for the pantry for more than a year.
"I didn't want to wait until the time when someone said, 'Now, you have to move.' ... It's very difficult to find just the right place."
The brick building she found on Franklin Street, a former ice-making plant, is about twice as large as the current pantry. It also has parking and a loading dock.
"Look how big this is," Campbell said during a tour this week. "This is so great."
She conceded, however, that it will require a lot of cleaning and some renovations for the place to be ready by the target date of Aug. 1. The pantry doesn't have the budget to hire workers, she said, and is counting on volunteers and donations.
"When I went into Immaculate Conception, it was just a big, empty space, and, little by little, it all fell into place," she said. "God provides, and I know he will."
The relocation from the downtown will move the pantry farther from The Point, the low-income neighborhood where it opened two decades ago.
"Yes, (many of our clients) do come from The Point, but not everyone," Campbell said. "We're hoping some people can get rides. Hopefully, everyone can get here. It's a little far, but I think when people want food and need food they can get here."
"It's sad to see her leave from that location, which was pretty visible to us," said Lucy Corchado, president of The Point Neighborhood Association. "But I can understand that this is probably the best move for her."
The move to Franklin Street is, in a way, a final break from the pantry's roots in the Catholic Church.
It began about 20 years ago in the basement of the former St. Joseph rectory and expanded after Campbell took over in 1999. It moved a short distance to Immaculate Conception when the Archdiocese of Boston closed St. Joseph Church in 2004.
More recently, the pantry merged with a food program run by Lifebridge, the former Salem Mission, the city's homeless shelter, and became known as the St. Joseph's Food Pantry/Harvest of Hope. Today, it is a private, nonprofit pantry organization that, at some future date, will be called simply Harvest of Hope, Campbell said.
In an e-mail to supporters, Campbell appealed for volunteers to help clean the new building and grounds, unload trucks, donate paint and materials, and do carpentry, plumbing and other work.
She also asked for financial donations and for volunteers to work at the pantry and serve on its board of directors. For more information, the pantry can be reached at 978-744-2532.
"We have served the North Shore community for many years," Campbell said, "and now we need the community to serve us."
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