Expanded Pantry Gives Lower Cape Outreach Council Much Needed Boost

ORLEANS – On the bottom level of the Lower Cape Outreach Council’s Brewster Cross Road building last Thursday, clients grabbed a cart and started making their way around the council’s newly renovated food pantry. The bright lights, new refrigerators and other amenities and expanded space made the experience more akin to shopping in a supermarket than the previous space. 

For the council’s CEO, Katie Wibby, that was exactly the idea.

“The stigma of coming to a food pantry is something that we’re still challenged with everyday” she said. “We want people to know that they’re welcome to come and there’s no stigma or need to be one when coming to our food pantry. We want to provide them with this more dignified experience.”

The new pantry is approximately three times the size of the building’s former pantry space, Wibby said. The renovation includes a large walk-in freezer, as well as separate space for clients to shop and for volunteers and staff to take in deliveries and donations. 

There’s also a “flex space” for programming, events and other needs as they arise. Most recently, the council hosted a “Foods to Encourage” event at the pantry in collaboration with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, where a nutritionist gave a food demonstration. A public health nurse from the county was also on hand to provide glucose and blood pressure testing for attendees that wanted them. The program is one of several such events that are hosted at the council annually, Wibby said.

A state grant helped fund the purchase of shopping carts, a new double door refrigerator and a food scale. Wibby estimates that approximately 80 percent of the food that comes into the pantry comes from the Greater Boston Food Bank, while the remaining 20 percent comes from local donations. She said the scale will allow the council to keep an official accounting of how much food comes in and from where.

The council is in the midst of a $3.5 million capital fundraising campaign, which includes $1 million to renovate the Brewster Cross Road building. About half of that $1 million is being raised to support the new pantry. After a trial run preparing Thanksgiving meals for clients last month, the new pantry officially opened its doors to the public on Dec. 2.

“It’s fantastic,” said Jackie Jurkowski, who volunteers in the pantry. “People love it here. It’s so bright and cheery. We've gotten really positive feedback.”

Wibby said the council set a record for the number of single-day visits to the Orleans pantry on that first day of operation.

“It was supposed to be a soft opening, but it wasn’t so soft,” she said with a laugh.

Wibby and the council’s staff and volunteers are hardly surprised. The high turnout speaks to the increase in demand that the council and other food pantries see post-COVID as the cost of food and other goods and services continue to rise.

That increase was further exacerbated last month after the Trump administration temporarily froze SNAP benefits for many families. Wibby said the council, which operates nine food pantries across the Lower and Outer Cape, has seen an increase in demand of about 20 percent this year from 2024. But during the first week of November when SNAP benefits were first paused, she said the council saw a 61 percent increase in the number of people served over the same week last year.

“It was a bit of an education, I think, for us,” Wibby said. “I think we realized that there are a lot of folks that are utilizing SNAP that don’t have a need to come to the food pantries. But if that benefit is reduced or eliminated for some folks based on qualification, I think we’re going to see that rise in demand.”

The council is currently in the process of preparing its annual budget for 2026. Wibby said while the anticipated increase for next year is expected to be less than it has in recent years, she figures it will still be close to 20 percent above 2025. 

“I think that remains to be seen,” she said. “I think I’d be shocked if it was less than 20 percent for ‘26 or ‘27, just because we’re likely to see healthcare costs rising for lots of folks. The cost of food is still going up. Inflation is still going up.”

Given those figures and projections, the new pantry comes online at a critical time. Wibby said since she started working with the council in 2022, staff and volunteers have been “on our heels” trying to meet the demand. But with the revamped space, the council will be able to meet the growing demand at least a few years out from 2026, she said.

“This has finally given us the opportunity to get enough food to make sure our shelves are full anytime someone comes to visit us at the food pantry, whether it’s Monday through Friday or evening hours on Wednesday night,” she said.

And with the new space and ability to service more clients, the council is also seeing an uptick in volunteerism. Gerry Desautels, the council’s director of development, said that the council has come close to doubling the number of volunteers looking for shifts in the new space.

“It’s more social and it’s a more fun, vibrant space for them to work in as well,” he said of the volunteers.

Desautels said he believes the rising cost of food, combined with the impact of the SNAP delays, may have raised awareness of the issue of food insecurity locally. That in turn could explain the increase in donations and volunteerism. He also said state officials have effectively brought attention to the need to support the council and other food pantries.

“I give the governor credit, too,” he said. “She said ‘You want to do something? Give to your local pantry.’ We saw a spike in donations.”

“When we need it most, people show up,” Wibby said.