Ledyard Food Locker gets new, larger home

Small move will bring big benefits, church and town officials say

Ledyard — Before the year is over, the town’s Food Locker will move less than a mile down Colonel Ledyard Highway to a more spacious location.

The move — the result of a late February agreement between the Town Council and the Ledyard Congregational Church — will put the pantry at 722 Colonel Ledyard Highway, in what was used as town hall from the 1930s to the mid-1950s.

In the deal, which lasts through June 30, 2016, the church pays for the building’s renovation with a combination of church funds and provided labor, while the council pays $550 a month to lease the space.

“The intent is for the church to not lose money,” said Councilman Bill Saums, also a member of Ledyard Congregational Church.

The change isn’t drastic: town officials still will oversee the pantry, which is available to all Ledyard and Gales Ferry residents who demonstrate financial need, and the remainder of the Social Services department will stay in Town Hall.

But those involved cited multiple benefits. Residents in need will be able to park and find the new Food Locker more easily, rather than having to find space in the Town Hall lot and navigate through that building. And the new, larger space, to be staffed with church and other volunteers, will be open on some evenings and even weekends — something the Town Hall is unable to accommodate.

For the church, which member Dave Holdridge said had been looking for a newmission since closing Ledyard Center Nursery School last year, the timing was perfect.

“We became aware that there was a need ( for food) within the town,” Holdridge said. “There is a great deal of excitement within the congregation about feeding the hungry — it’s something that has been talked about a lot within our church. It’s a great fit for us.”

For the past few months, the church has been focused on renovating the space, where a refrigerator and shelves eventually will be placed. The project’s completion date, however, is not yet set in stone.

“We’ve had a moving target,” Saums said, explaining that things such as this winter’s snowstorms and the de- cision to restore rather than replace the building’s windows have slowed progress. “It’s little slower going than you expect, as with all projects.”

Still, Saums said the doors will open sometime this year. In preparation for that, he’s been seeking out volunteers— through word of mouth and the popular Ledyard Community Forum Facebook group— whom representatives from the New London Gemma E. Moran UnitedWay/Labor Food Center will help train.

“I put a request out on the Facebook forum and basically said, ‘We’re looking for volunteers, who’s up?’” Saums said. “Within 48 hours, there were 22 volunteers.”

Holdridge said the response “shows that there is energy in our church,” but added that volunteers don’t have to be church members.

“When a good project is started like this, people seem to respond,” he said.

Holdridge, whose term as Ledyard Congregational Church’s moderator recently ended, said he expects to volunteer often.

“I think that all of us look for meaningful things to do in life,” he said. “This is something that comes up as an obvious one.”