‘Helping Neighbors’ Enters Final Hours

HARWICH – We’ll each have our own memories of 2025, but for many Cape Codders, it’ll be remembered as the first time in their lives they visited a food pantry.

The Family Pantry of Cape Cod welcomed many new clients, showing them how to apply for assistance and fill out their shopping lists. Volunteers loaded them up with healthy groceries and gently-used clothing for their families, and connected them with other local social service agencies. Many of those clients are facing a new age of uncertainty, when federal safety nets like SNAP benefits are frozen or endangered.

But those volunteers will remember something else about 2025: the surge of generosity it inspired. Many new supporters scoured their own pantries for food to donate, or went to stores to buy turkeys or canned soup or personal hygiene products. They donated clothing in record numbers, with some items going to Pantry clients, and others being sold at Second Glance Thrift Store to raise cash for the Pantry to buy food. And many, many people pulled out their checkbooks and became financial supporters for the first time.

Family Pantry Executive Director Paul Lonergan has a new mission: to encourage volunteers and staff to stop referring to folks as “clients” and to start calling them “customers.” Doing so, he says, ensures that the organization continues its mission of feeding and clothing people with the respect and dignity everyone deserves. After all, every person who visits the Family Pantry for help has a unique story.

A few weeks ago, a mother and her 10-year-old daughter visited the Pantry for the first time to sign up for assistance, Program Manager Melissa Masi recalled.

“They had just become residents of Independence House in Hyannis,” she said, referring to the Cape’s leading shelter for people touched by domestic and sexual violence. The mother was clearly nervous and apprehensive, and her daughter was very quiet. They suddenly had lost their home and all their resources — and just before the holidays.

“We are very sensitive to women who get a placement with Independence House. It is an incredibly stressful time in their lives, as they have just fled a chaotic situation and are now in hiding,” Masi said. People in this kind of situation are registered under an address different from the one where they actually live, to provide an added layer of security.

“The volunteer doing the initial registration was fantastic, patient and calm,” Masi recalled. After arranging for the family’s food and clothing, the volunteer asked Masi if there was any way to provide the 10-year-old girl with toys — even though the deadline to sign up for the Family Pantry’s annual toy day had passed weeks earlier.

“I quickly went back to where we had all our toys and made up a great, big toy bag with lots of crafts, stuffed animals and warm pajamas,” Masi said. “When we handed the green toy bag to the mom, she was so touched, she immediately gave it to her daughter. The girl finally smiled, from ear to ear.”

While some Family Pantry clients are going through personal crises like the loss of a job or a wage-earning loved one, many others are simply struggling to pay the monthly bills, usually working more than one job. For these people, the crisis of “affordability” is no hoax: their paychecks are quickly consumed by the high cost of housing, transportation, medical care and utilities, often leaving food as a discretionary expense. By providing bags of groceries every 10 days, the Family Pantry eases one budget item, providing a bit of leeway for other expenses.

This year, The Cape Cod Chronicle set a goal of $130,000 for its holiday Helping Neighbors campaign, and donations have been streaming in ahead of the end of the fundraiser, which is generally New Year’s Eve. In light of the condensed holiday season, Helping Neighbors is being extended until Monday, Jan. 5 to allow last-minute donors to come forward. Because of generous donors like Karen Campbell and others, all donations up to $130,000 are being doubled, dollar-for-dollar.  

“It’s been a year of real uncertainty for a lot of Cape Codders, and nobody can guess what 2026 will bring,” Cape Cod Chronicle Editor Tim Wood said. “It’s a privilege for us to host Helping Neighbors every year. Our readers never fail to answer the call for help for the Family Pantry, and the money that comes in around the holidays ensures that they’re strongly positioned to answer any challenges the new year brings.”