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Date: 6/29/2022
SOUTHWICK — The Southwick Civic Fund is working to acquire the property of Christ Church United Methodist, which hosted its last worship services on June 19, in order to keep it as a home for Our Community Food Pantry.
After the conclusion of the church’s final Sunday service before its closure, Southwick Civic Fund President Joseph Deedy said that his nonprofit group is working on a plan to acquire the property shared by both the church and the food pantry to keep the pantry running. Deedy said nothing is set in stone yet, but that he will meet with officials from the Western Massachusetts Conference of the United Methodist Church in the hopes of finalizing an acquisition.
“The church right now belongs to those parishioners, and they would love the food pantry to stay,” said Deedy.
If the civic fund’s plan to acquire the property does not move forward, the church property on College Highway will fall under the ownership of the Western Massachusetts conference after June 30, and the future of the pantry, headquartered in a house on church property, would be unclear.
Deedy said that if the Civic Fund can acquire the property, he would also like to see an expansion of the food pantry’s services, especially in a time of rising food prices and general economic hardship. He said he would like to see the operations of the pantry moved to one of the larger buildings on the property, in part to give them more storage space for food.
“If we can make this work, we may expand the food pantry program,” said Deedy.
Our Community Food Pantry Operations Manager Sally Munson said that the three buildings on the church property cannot be split into separate lots.
“If they don’t give it to the Civic Fund, who has the funds and capabilities to manage all these buildings, we would have to find a new home, or close,” said Munson.
She said the demand at the pantry has increased noticeably ever since food prices began rising. Some of the new clients, she said, are people with otherwise decent jobs who, with the downturn of the economy, suddenly find themselves in need of food assistance.
“We are giving out about 10,000 pounds of food a month, and it is increasing,” said Munson. “And the costs are going through the roof.”
After a meeting with representatives from the Western Massachusetts Methodist conference on June 23, Church Closure Committee Chair and congregant Joan Machacek said that the conference representatives were receptive to the idea of the Civic Fund purchasing the property, but that it may take time before anything can be agreed upon and set in stone.