🔒After six months of construction, SoPo food pantry will unveil new site

After a four-year property search followed by six months of construction and fit-up, the South Portland Food Cupboard is up and running at a location that provides expanded capacity to meet growing demand.

The nonprofit had its first distribution at 443C Western Ave., at the Jet Port Plaza in South Portland, on Jan. 20.

PM Construction Co. in Saco managed the renovation and fit-up.

The cupboard signed the lease on the 8,500 square feet of space, from Jetport Plaza LLC, last summer. Justin Lamontagne and Greg Hastings of the Dunham Group brokered the transaction.

A grand opening — with a ribbon-cutting, tours and opportunities to meet the leadership —  is scheduled for March 19 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

“The larger facility, which more than doubled from 4,000 square feet to 8,500 square feet, provides a better-organized workflow for receiving and weighing donated food to processing and storing fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, refrigerated and frozen food, as well as canned and dry packaged staples,” Richard Borrelli, president of the nonprofit’s board of directors, told Mainebiz.

The site has multiple loading docks to accommodate various truck heights and make food rescue and distribution safer and more efficient. Additional freezers and refrigerators, along with updated transport carts and stainless tables, allow the cupboard to process food according to food-safe protocol.

The rear warehouse is part of a larger 50,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by the Burlington Coat Factory. The overall building is 100,982 square feet.

Fire walls

The build-out included construction of a partition wall up to the existing 19-foot roof deck to separate the spaces, said Nick Cormier, PM Construction's business development manager. The high-performance wall has a “two-hour” rating, meaning it’s designed to prevent fire spread for at least two hours between commercial units.

PM Construction built offices, restrooms, a breakroom, a shopping area, food storage and processing areas.

“Within this space, there are also some walk-in coolers and freezers,” said Cormier. “Some of these came from the food cupboard's previous location, some of them are brand new. These walk-ins and their components required some additional mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, as well as roof penetrations and fire suppression to satisfy building code.”

He added, “This space was custom-built to serve the South Portland Food Cupboard for years to come.”

Workstations on wheels

“Our first few weeks of distribution have gone exceedingly well, with few tweaks in how things are working,” Borrelli said. “Volunteers appreciate the new facility, which features great lighting, plenty of space to work and flexible-height workstations on wheels, which allow us to change orientation and location as needed. We even have a forklift to manage larger pallets of food now needed due to the increased recipient count.”

The team is hearing comments from recipients as well, about how much they appreciate not having to wait in their cars lined up in the street, which they did at the cupboard’s previous home, said Borrelli.

“They are welcomed upon arrival, line their vehicles up in the parking lot and head into the building to the recipient shopping area, where items not on our list are offered first come/first served,” he said. “Their online orders are retrieved by volunteers and loaded into their vehicles shortly thereafter.”

Years-long search

The cupboard started in 1997, initially operating out of St. John the Evangelist Church in South Portland.  In 2013, the pantry moved to about 4,000 square feet of space at 130 Thadeus St. in South Portland.

“It was big enough for a while,” Borrelli said last year.

In 2020, demand rose. By 2024, it had 21,992 onsite recipients and distributed just over 1 million pounds of food.

The pantry has four part-time employees and roughly 150 volunteers.

When it became apparent that more space was needed, a years-long search ensued. Search criteria included level floor space at grade, adequate parking, reasonable traffic flow and some level of discretion.

Borrelli has credited Lamontagne for his persistence in bringing them options and the landlord for their support.

The 443C Western Ave. warehouse fit the bill. Fit-up included electrical work, a digital ordering system, walk-in freezer and cooler. Barrier-free restrooms with changing tables were added. The entire facility is barrier-free, with the entry doors at grade and no slopes or thresholds.

“That’s something we didn’t have before,” said Borrelli.

Other installations included white paint, LED lighting and sealing on the concrete floor. Three compartment sinks are part of the cupboard’s alignment with food-safe processes.

Running on an annual budget of about $500,000, financing in general comes from money and food donations and grants. Food comes from the Good Shepherd Food Bank's regular distributions, along with Hannaford supermarkets.

The location increases the cupboard’s capacity.

“Between online ordering by recipients and an improved traffic flow in the parking lot, we have increased our ability to serve more recipient families with greater efficiency,” said Borrelli. “In the hours allotted for distribution, we are serving more people at the new location than at the former location.”

“I can’t say enough about our landlord, our community,” said Borrelli. “Everyone has been overtly generous.”