Volunteers build new food pantry in Sayville
Volunteers replace shack that lacked heat, air conditioning, with new building where needy can get food

By Jennifer Maloney
Newsday
December 10, 2007

For 13 years, Sayville's food pantry sat in a dilapidated, windowless shack. In winter, it froze. In summer, it baked. So a group of volunteers pulled it down. And in three days, they built a new one.

Volunteers from local businesses and community groups began on Friday afternoon erecting the frame of a new 240-square-foot structure behind Gillette House, a community center on Gillette Avenue owned by the Town of Islip. By yesterday afternoon, the builders were in the final stages: hanging white vinyl siding, stapling roof shingles and running in electrical wiring.

By the end of the chilly, gray afternoon, they were very nearly done.

"We're really very pleased with ourselves, getting all that done in three days," said Islip Councilman Chris Bodkin, who spearheaded the project. "It was so cold. None of us are 18 anymore, either."

The Greater Sayville Food Pantry is open three mornings a week and serves about 110 recipients a month, said Chestene Coverdale, director of the pantry.

During the holidays, that number doubles, she said. Most recipients fall into one of three categories: the working poor, who can't make ends meet; senior citizens on fixed incomes; and single parents.

The old food pantry had no heat or air conditioning. One winter, containers of cooking oil froze and burst. So pantry volunteers started bringing canned food home overnight. During the summer, the temperature inside the cramped space soared to 110 degrees. Food went rotten. Bugs ate their way through boxes of pasta.

"We were constantly throwing out," Coverdale said.

For the reconstruction project, local students carried the food out of the pantry up to the second floor of Gillette House. A local builder, architect and electrician worked for free. Lowe's donated building supplies and a handful of builders. An Islip Town building inspector monitored the construction and pitched in, too.

A few finishing touches will be completed tomorrow, then the new space will be in business, officials said. The pantry will have plywood walls lined with shelves. It will also have a skylight, heat and an air conditioner.

"I can't believe," Coverdale said, shaking her head. "I just can't believe."

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