A Changing Of The Guard At The Family Pantry Of Cape Cod

HARWICH – When Christine Menard took over as the executive director of the Family Pantry of Cape Cod in 2016, it was a different place. 

 “We were serving 164 families a week,” she said. Now, it’s more like 800. The organization grew by necessity as more and more people found themselves unsure where their next meal was coming from. 

Menard will retire at the end of next month, leaving a well-organized, financially stable, highly efficient nonprofit to the next leader, Paul Lonergan.

 “It’s time for somebody else to come in and take it to another level. So now that we’ve got Paul in place, I am relieved,” Menard said. “This is a massive responsibility. This is not like corporate America where you can just walk away. You don’t walk away from this.” 

When she’s not preparing a budget or working with the board of directors, she’s often seen mopping the floor or lugging clothing donations. It’s the best job she’s ever had, Menard said, but she needs the time away to tend to family matters.

 Menard came to the pantry from Stop & Shop, where she learned all about food distribution, personnel management and finance. So when she recognized the name of a former co-worker among the applicants for the executive director post, she was excited. Lonergan was known as a “fix-it person,” she recalled. “They would come in and tell you what was wrong and tell you what you’re supposed to be watching for.” The two worked closely for years, both having managed the East Harwich Stop & Shop at one point and both having applied for the Family Pantry job back in 2016. 

 Feeling a need for a career change, Lonergan saw the job posting and didn’t hesitate.

 “I have never typed so fast to apply for a job in my life,” he said with a chuckle. He chatted with Menard by phone the next day, and on the following day, he was interviewing with the pantry’s human resources committee. Having impressed that group, Lonergan was hired shortly thereafter. He’s now shadowing Menard for a month to learn the ropes.

 “I think being a warm and fuzzy guy with a lot of knowledge, I fit right in. And following my predecessor, we have kind of the same background. I’ve done some H.R. and I’ve done some e-commerce. I think the e-commerce might be a help here when we try to get a little bit more efficient. Efficiency is always good if it helps that client get one more item in that bag,” Lonergan said. 

 Lonergan said he’s excited to get to work with the pantry’s huge volunteer corps and its small group of paid staff. It’s the right time in his life for this challenge, he said.

 “I’ve raised my family and it’s time to give back, and there’s no better way. This is meaningful,” he said. “What better way to do it than to feed people and put clothes on their backs?”

 In her nine-year tenure, Menard has had some challenges — but none that matched the pandemic.

 “The scariest was COVID, by far. How do I keep older people safe and keep the pantry open? It was the scariest 11 days of my life: we changed the operation here six times in 11 days to get to this. That was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do,” she said. But the result wasn’t just that the pantry continued to operate safely during that time; social distancing required a whole new system that allowed clients to continue choosing the grocery items they wanted without having them walk side-by-side with volunteers. The new system turned out to be vastly more efficient, even long after the public health crisis had passed.

 “We would never be able to feed 800 families a week in the old system,” she said. “So in that respect, COVID was a blessing. And we will never outgrow this building because of the system that we have.”

 What were the best moments for Menard? There have been so many positive experiences and successes, friendships she’s made and things she’s learned over her tenure here.

 “But one of the happiest? To be honest with you, when he walked in,” Menard said, motioning to Lonergan. “And I’m not just saying that. It was such a sense of relief, because the thought of leaving this building not in the right hands?” 

Menard doesn’t finish her sentence, just shakes her head. “When he hit the building, I was like, ‘We’re good. We’re OK.’”