Kiwanis cuts ribbon on new facility

Sisters Kiwanis and a host of community volunteers have been feeding those who hunger for years now, through a food bank that has grown to be an important resource for the region.

Now, thanks to the backing of still more volunteers, the service club has a new, purpose-built facility from where they can meet the need. The club cut the ribbon on the new facility on Main Avenue in a grand-opening ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

Kiwanis president Chuck Kuzminski noted the need: "There is poverty aplenty; we just don't see it in our society."

Scott Cooper of NeighborImpact noted that the recent rollback of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will increase the need for assistance from food banks.

"Our work is going to have to double to make up that gap," he told the assemblage.

Local food-bank usage climbed by 53 percent already this year, he noted.

The new facility will make working conditions for volunteers better and their efforts more efficient.

"We've been able to streamline the storage, selection and distribution," Kuzminski said. "Good work is being done here for our fellow neighbors."

Food bank planner David Hiller, designer and contractor Gary Kutz, and project manager David Roberts snipped the ribbon to officially open the site, when the assembled crowd came in out of the cold to tour the facility and celebrate a facility that will be, in the words of Rev. Ted Rodrigues, "an institution to meet the needs of those who are hungry, who are in need of community."