ABERDEEN – Volunteers and supporters of Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry celebrated the completion of the facility’s remodeling project provided by a $65,000 Lowe’s Hometowns Grant with a Nov. 15 ribbon cutting and open house.
Improvements included new sheetrock, laminate floors, ceilings, lighting, fencing, a handicap-accessible sidewalk and parking lot improvements, among other upgrades.
It was among 100 entities nationwide to receive funding through the inaugural grant and one of only three food pantries to be awarded.
Loaves and Fishes Executive Director Lloyd Massey credited food pantry office manager Leslie Hitchcock for calling his attention to the grant opportunity.
“We did and then waited around. Finally, we got this little message that that we were in the top 200 in the United States. We thought we were in tall cotton then,” he said.
The food pantry was then invited to pursue inclusion in the top 100 applicants.
“We worked here for about five days, eight hours a day and then we waited some more,” he said.
Massey opened an email one evening informing him Loaves and Fishes was among 100 applicants across the nation to be awarded a grant.
“That made my day,” he said. “We started on the fifth day of July and finished (on Nov. 14), on time and on budget.”
Massey expressed his appreciation to everyone who helped, including Columbus’ Lowe’s manager Tom Barrentine and volunteers from the store.
“They sent 15 volunteers from their store to come and help us,” Massey said.
Barrentine shared his enthusiasm in seeing the completed project.
“We’re happy to be a part of this. Our communities support us, and we support them,” he said.
Massey also honored Father Tim Murphy, who formerly served as priest at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. He began Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry in the church basement with some assorted canned goods 25 years ago.
Murphy offered the invocation before the ribbon was cut and was quick to pay tribute to God and the people who collaborated on the effort.
“This is who started it and continued it with all of you,” Murphy said with a finger pointed upward. “We remember so many friends from so many churches.”
He concluded his prayer by asking for God’s continued blessing on all the people who serve and those who are served.
“May the multiplication of loaves and fishes be not only witness to the glory and power of the presence of Christ Jesus, but, above all, to embody a place where the poor are welcomed, greeted and fed. May that grace continue and that legacy live on,” he prayed.
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