Partnership Food Pantry receives $10,000 Gibson Grant

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GUILFORD — The Partnership Food Pantry, serving clients in Guilford and Greenville, was notified last week that it is in line for a $10,000 grant from the Marshall L. and Ruth-Anne H. Gibson Foundation.
    According to Al Hunt, the food pantry’s director, the timing was nearly perfect.
    “We were right on the edge of moving into the new place last fall, but we wanted to see how the building would fare over the winter. It was a good thing we waited,” Hunt said.

    The combination of heavy snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures took its toll on the building’s roof and caused “some water incursion issues in the foundation,” Hunt said.
    So the bulk of the money will probably be used to increase the pitch of the roof and shore up the foundation, Hunt said. “It will cost us quite a few grand, but it will be worth it. It’s really nice to have this money, but we’re always aware how we have to stretch our budget,” he said.
    The charitable fund was set up by Marshall “Jack” Gibson, 85, of South Portland and his wife, Ruth-Anne, who owned Commercial Paving and Recycling from 1945 until it was sold in 2004.
    The Gibsons pledged to send a $10,000 check to each town that they did business with during the time they owned the businesses at the rate of one per month. That’s 60 towns in 59 years. Their only stipulation is that the money would go toward services to assist children, the elderly or a community project.
    Partnership Food Pantry currently operates out of the former Guilford Primary School building and a storage area in the Greenville fire station annex. The combined locations serve around 200 families, Hunt said.
    With assistance from several non-profit and private sponsors, the food pantry launched the Weekend Backpack Program in 2011. The program supplies area children with new L.L. Bean backpacks filled with an assortment of food items that they could take home on Fridays. Many students receive free or reduced lunches in the district, so the extra food helps needy families make ends meet.
    Three years ago, the non-profit organization purchased a tax-acquired convenience store just north of Guilford and has been slowly remodeling the interior in preparation of making it the permanent food pantry.
     “One of things we hope to do eventually is to put siding on the outside to make it look better,” Hunt said. “I think people feel better about coming to a place that looks halfway decent.”
    While money is tight at times, the need is still there. “We had a very busy winter — much more than we anticipated,” he said. On the plus side, “We’ve got plenty of volunteers. People really care and they really want to help.”
    More information about the pantry is posted at www.mainepartnership.org.