Nantucket Food Pantry Scrambling To Find A New Home

In just over eight months, the town of Nantucket will force the Nantucket Food Pantry to move out of its longtime home on Washington Street by declining to renew the pantry’s lease. If the pantry can’t find a new home by April 30th, it may be forced to dramatically scale down its operations, potentially consigned to a small roving van and a series of parking lots.

“It’s a huge problem,” food pantry manager Ruth Pitts told the Current. “We can’t overstate the severity of the situation at this juncture.”

The pantry currently operates out of a cramped building on Washington Street near the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority (NRTA) bus depot. But the Town of Nantucket, which purchased the building in 2022, recently told the food pantry that its lease will not be renewed next April, starting a countdown that could have disastrous ramifications for the island’s large food-insecure population.

Founded in 1991, the food pantry has long been the face of food aid on Nantucket, providing a critical lifeline to thousands of Nantucket residents. According to its website, the food pantry, now under the umbrella of Nantucket Food, Fuel and Rental Assistance (NFFRA), distributes over 16,000 bags of groceries a year.

“For 34 years, we have helped this community deal with its silent food insecurity problem,” Executive Director for NFFRA Outreach Programs and Director for Rental and Fuel Assistance Programs Janis Carreiro said. “We are the largest food insecurity provider on the island. There will be an impact.”

NFFRA, in turn, is run by the Nantucket Interfaith Council.

“We can't stop the food pantry because we're being booted out of a space. That doesn't stop hunger,” Gary Bretton-Granatoor, the president of the Nantucket Interfaith Council board, said. “The food pantry is absolutely critical. It is the most important food resource on the island for those who need it.”

The town purchased the building that currently houses the food pantry in 2022 for transportation and other municipal purposes, an acquisition that was approved by voters at the Annual Town Meeting and a ballot vote. The town contends that the decision not to renew the food pantry’s lease next spring is necessary as NRTA’s free ride service expands, and was always the intention.

“[The pantry’s] current lease ends April 30, 2026, and we have informed them it will not be renewed,” Town of Nantucket Communications Manager Florencia Rullo said. “This decision is based on several factors: the planned expansion of NRTA’s ‘free ride’ services, increased traffic and congestion in the area, and the need for significant repairs and renovations to accommodate NRTA operations in the building. NRTA buses cannot be relocated elsewhere in Town, and the building was always intended to serve as a long-term transportation center, including office space for NRTA.”

To accommodate the offices and growing public transportation operation, the island’s food pantry will be forced out.

“While we had hoped another location would be secured sooner, unfortunately, we are not able to extend their lease beyond April 2026,” Rullo said. “The Town values the important services provided by both the Food Pantry and NRTA.”

While the leaders of the Nantucket Food Pantry have known for years that they would eventually lose the space, Carreiro and Bretton-Granatoor both confirmed that until August, they believed the town would extend their lease again if they hadn’t found a new home by April.

“A month ago, we were operating on the assumption that if we needed to, yes, they would extend the lease,” Bretton-Granatoor said. “It just breaks my heart that the town doesn't seem to be all-in on helping us find a space.”

In recent years, several organizations, including the newly-launched Nourish Nantucket, have drawn increasing attention to the island’s staggering food-insecurity crisis. Around one in five Nantucket residents struggles to afford food, highlighting the enormous problem the food pantry is working to address.

But if the pantry can’t find a new location by April, all of that work is at risk.

“A huge aspect of the pantry will cease to exist,” Pitts said. “The community has always supported us, and now we are absolutely in a desperate situation, so we need help.”

Carreiro told the Current that the pantry has come close to securing a new home more than once, but all efforts to find a permanent base of operations have fallen through.

“We came close on two occasions,” Carreiro said. “Every time we get close to it, someone either bids more, or…they’ve taken it off the market.”

The pantry has been searching for a new home for several years, but now, with the deadline looming, it is operating with an increased sense of urgency and is willing to compromise on several of its priorities if it means having somewhere to distribute food from next summer.

“Our goal was always to be…mid-island, near a bus stop,” Carreiro said. “That might need to go.”

In an ideal world, the pantry would find a location that’s better than its current building on Washington Street. But this might not be an ideal world.

“The long-term problem is we have been trying to find a place that is appropriate for Nantucket, because these clients of ours need to be treated with dignity,” Bretton-Granatoor said. “Even the Washington Street place is woefully inadequate.”

The pantry is actively seeking help from anyone able to offer land for a new building.

“Maybe there is someone out there,” Pitts said. “Literally, in this scenario, it will just take one.”

They have also set up a fund with the Community Foundation for Nantucket, with all of the profits going towards a new home for the pantry. Donations can be made here.