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Date: 12/14/2023
SOUTHWICK — On Saturday, Dec. 16, Our Community Food Pantry will move into a new facility the Southwick Civic Fund has been building since it broke ground in August.
“It’s all coming together,” said Joseph Deedy, president of the nonprofit Southwick Civic Fund, while standing inside the 1,800-square-foot building with 14-foot ceilings last week.
On Dec. 7, two workers, David McKay and George Reyes, from Southwick-based General Contracting Solutions Inc., which has served as the general contractor for the job, were finishing some decorative touches to the new pantry counters and walls, using several hardwoods that have a connection to three local churches.
Deedy had originally planned on repurposing some of the wooden pews from the former Methodist church on the property at 222 College Hwy. to provide the pantry a personal touch, but then learned of some pews no longer being used at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, and was also told of a tree taken down at Southwick Congregational Church in the 1970s.
Using those sources, McKay and Reyes planed the wood, which included oak, cypress, and pine, and created façades that run along the front of the counter and as wainscoting along the walls in the client area.
“It’s a blend of all three churches,” Deedy said.
Deedy said all that is needed to complete the project is the completion of the new septic system and connecting power to the building, which was expected this week.
The move was up in the air until the afternoon of Dec. 7, when Deedy got a call from Crestview Inc., the Southwick-based heavy construction contractor, that it would complete installing the septic system three days earlier than planned.
“That was good news,” Deedy said before thanking the company’s principals, Joe Dziengelewski and Brian LeDuc, for their commitment to the project.
With the majority of the work expected to be done Dec. 16, volunteers that include members of the Lions Club, the Rotary Club of Southwick, the Southwick Police Association, and the Southwick Firemen’s Association will begin moving shelving and food from the current food pantry into the new space.
“It’s exciting,” said Sally Munson, the director of the pantry, while standing inside the current Our Community Food Pantry, a converted single-family home next door to the former Christ Church United Methodist. The food pantry formerly rented the space from the Methodist congregation, which worshiped at the church for more than 200 years before voting to dissolve itself in 2022.
The Southwick Civic Fund purchased the property shortly thereafter, and after assessing the space available in the church building, the house and the fellowship hall, began working with the food pantry on a custom-built facility on the property.
The current plan is to have the new facility completely open Jan. 1, 2024. Munson said that there are plans to have an open house for the public, but no date has been set yet.
While the Civic Fund has been organizing community events for Southwick, Granville and Tolland for years, this pantry construction project was different.
“It’s our biggest project and it encompasses everything we are,” Deedy said.
The construction would not have occurred if several things hadn’t happened. One of the most important was the pantry securing a $125,000 state grant, aided by state Rep. Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) and state Sen. Paul Mark (D-Becket), as the seed money for the construction.
However, that wasn’t nearly enough to cover the entire cost of construction, Deedy said.
Once the design of the building was finished and the Civic Fund had secured the necessary building permits, Deedy began asking for donations of materials and labor from local contractors. He has said the response was overwhelmingly positive, but that the build is set about $20,000 short.
“We could use a couple more bucks,” he said.
He then gave a couple of examples of the generosity nearly all of the contractors, including one that provided a quote of $10,000 to install the sheetrock inside the building. Deedy said the contractor had been hanging the sheetrock for a couple of days when they asked him what the building was going to be used for.
When told, said Deedy, the contractor cut the cost in half.
He had several other examples, like Vining Hill Electric, which installed all the building’s wiring at no cost; Southwick Electric providing all the lighting at no cost; and W.F. Johnson & Son Electric installing the outside electrical panels at no cost.
He wanted to again thank all those who have helped: GCS Inc.; Crestview Inc.; Dorsey Construction & Remodeling and General Contracting Solutions; his son’s business Deedy Electric, and Adam Goodall; Tom Fitzgerald, to design a new septic system for the property; Alex and Ryan Korobkov with Industrial Steel and Boiler Services to install the heating system; Jason Moran with Morduct to install the HVAC system; Christopher Karney, who owns Holyoke-based Pioneer Land Planning, for site plans; Tynic Landscaping, which will provide landscaping services; Westfield Gas & Electric; John’s Trucking; W.F. Johnson & Son Electric; Vining Hill Electric; Southwick Electric; Cain’s Mechanical LLC; F.W. Webb Co.; Chet Comee & Sons Concrete; Steve Brzoska Plumbing; and Industrial Solutions.