Food bank’s Singleton will leave with tears and gratefulness
CAMBRIDGE — The heart and soul of the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank is retiring.
Executive director Pat Singleton, once a recipient of the food bank, who went on to lead the organization’s successful development for more than two decades, will be retiring at the end of March.
She has been with the charitable organization for 22 years.
The decision to retire, which organically grew from work on its new strategic plan, is still painfully fresh.
With each special event hosted by the food bank, it’s a reminder for Singleton that it is the last one for her as the head of the agency.
A picnic hosted by the food bank last week was evidence of the emotional journey about to unfold.
“I could just feel myself feeling really teary,” she said with a laugh.
She has given staff and volunteers fair warning to tell her to pull herself together if tears of lament continue to fall.
A committee is already working on a plan to search for a successor.
Under Singleton’s leadership, the food bank has grown from an organization that handed out groceries from the trunk of a car to a full-fledged community investment program that also works to offer a hand-up through education and self-improvement.
Along the way, Singleton has overseen never-ending food drives and facility changes that included a renovated warehouse at its Ainslie Street South location, a facility that now desperately needs to expand to handle incoming and outgoing donations.
Though a grant to expand the warehouse fell through late last year, sadly leaving the project on her to-do list when she retires, Singleton takes comfort knowing that the organization will serve the community after she’s gone.
Instead, she will remember most the people whose lives were connected to the food bank, as recipients, volunteers and donors.
“I really have been blessed with the people that I’ve worked with,” said Singleton.
“Whoever takes this job will be getting a good board of directors and a really committed staff.”
Without hesitation, Singleton listed the countless times staff and volunteers went above and beyond to help someone in need, showing compassion and patience without judgment.
She said she has witnessed a great many unselfish acts displayed by Cambridge residents who gave so much so that other less fortunate families could put food on the table, or even tuck something under the tree during the Christmas holidays.
Among the remarkable memories she will always hold dear, was a particular visit to a needy family — a physically challenged mother and her two young children.
Soon after arriving and sneaking some Christmas
gifts into the home for the kids, Singleton was struck by the children’s insistence that she take some of their beloved toys to other kids, who may not have anything in their stockings.
It’s a memory and an example of true spirit of giving she won’t soon forget.
Still, like many social gamechangers, Singleton is troubled by regret that she could have done more, especially when it came to addressing society’s misguided views of poverty, and willingness to judge without understanding.
There’s not a week that goes by without someone making a remark about food bank recipients, based on superficial assumptions, she told the Times.
For two decades, she and food bank staff have tried to educate the community that poverty can happen to anyone at any time, even those who previously rushed to judgment about the poor.
Unfortunately, times have changed, but opinions don’t always change with them, maintains Singleton.
“I feel a real sadness about stuff that hasn’t changed,” she said, fighting back tears. “I thought we would be so much closer.”
Though it’s a tall order to alter unwilling minds, Singleton’s faith is buoyed by the overwhelming generosity expressed within the community, something she knows will continue after she retires.
“They’re not giving for me,” she stated, “they’re giving because of who we are and what we do.”
While that may be true, Singleton’s departure next spring will leave some big shoes — and a big heart — to fill.
In an impromptu announcement, the food bank reflected on her years of services.
“Her steadfast dedication to provide hope and self-reliance to those in our community, who have needed it the most, has been an inspiration to all that had the privilege of working, volunteering and collaborating with her.”