Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Providence Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Maria Riva selects potatoes at the food pantry of the Providence In-Town Churches Association, which Monday celebrated its move to the First Universalist Church of Providence on Washington Street.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The city's only downtown food pantry Monday celebrated its move to new quarters, offering oranges, cabbage, bread and potatoes to men and women gathered in the basement of the First Universalist Church.

The move will allow the poor to choose from an expanded menu of fresh food, said Diana Burdett, executive director of Providence Intown Churches Association. Since 1974, PICA has operated the pantry at the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church.

The expanded program is needed, said Burdette at a press conference at the church, at 250 Washington St.

"Some may wonder why we need a food pantry in a revitalized city with luxury lofts," she said. But since September, she said, the number of people who use the pantry has jumped from 500 to nearly 1,300, a more-than-150-percent increase.

"We've had a lot more families, children and the elderly," said pantry supervisor George Gaffett. "These are people who drive up in nice cars, people who have lost their jobs or who are waiting on benefits."

The expansion comes on the heels of a new hunger report by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. According to the agency, food pantries and soup kitchens served 13 million meals from September 2008 to August 2009, a 30-percent increase from the same year-ago period.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the food pantry moved Monday.

 Tags  hunger Providence Intown Churches Association Providence RI

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