The Medway Food Pantry is entering an exciting new chapter with the public launch of Nourishing Our Future, a capital campaign to create a dedicated, unified home for food access in Medway.

As the Pantry looks ahead to this next chapter, it is also celebrating the visionaries whose work made this moment possible: Marilyn Conley, founder of the Medway Village Food Pantry, who retired in December 2024, and Paul Galante, who served as director of the Medway Food Pantry at Mahan Circle for the last 10 years before retiring in May. Marilyn and Paul saw the need in Medway and helped build compassionate, volunteer-driven food pantry programs that have served neighbors with dignity for years. Their leadership, persistence, and tremendous work helped bring the Pantry to this point.

The campaign will support the build-out of the Pantry’s new space at 74 Main Street, where construction is already underway. The goal is to open the new facility in August, creating a permanent home that will bring together Medway’s two all-volunteer food pantries into one coordinated operation.

For years, Medway’s food pantries have operated out of temporary, pop-up spaces. While these spaces have allowed volunteers to serve neighbors with care and dedication, they have also limited capacity, storage, food recovery, and the ability to provide a consistent, dignified experience for clients.

The need for a dedicated space has become increasingly urgent. Over the past four years, demand for food assistance in Medway has increased by more than 200%. Today, more than 1,000 Medway residents rely on the Pantry each year, including many children, seniors, and working families. In addition, 1 in 10 households in Medway receives SNAP benefits, underscoring the growing food insecurity that exists even in a community many may not associate with hunger.

The new 2,700-square-foot facility will allow the Pantry to move to one unified pantry with expanded capacity. The space is being designed to support appointment-based, market-style shopping, allowing clients to choose the food that best meets their household’s needs while preserving dignity and reducing waste.

It will also strengthen the Pantry’s food recovery work. Each week, the Pantry receives healthy, nutritious food from local grocery stores and community partners - food that is then distributed to neighbors instead of being diverted to landfills. With more refrigeration, storage, and operational space, the Pantry will be able to recover and distribute more fresh and nutritious food efficiently.

For the neighbors who rely on the Pantry, the impact is deeply personal.

“Every month was becoming harder,” shared one dual-income Medway household. “The pantry didn’t just help me put food on the table, it helped me regain the mental space to keep moving forward.”

Another client, who later became a volunteer, described the experience this way: “I expected to feel shame. Instead, I felt welcomed. There was no judgement, only kindness. The pantry gave me stability.”

The Pantry is grateful to the many individuals, families, local businesses, companies, and community organizations that have already committed to this project during the quiet phase of the campaign. Their generosity and leadership have helped bring the project to this important milestone and have created strong momentum as the campaign enters its public phase.

As the public phase of Nourishing Our Future begins, the Pantry is inviting the entire community to be part of building what comes next. Individuals, families, businesses, and organizations can make one-time gifts, pledge support over time, give through a donor-advised fund, donate stock, mail a check, or participate through employer charitable giving and matching gift programs.

Donors contributing $5,000 or more will have the opportunity to be recognized on the Hearts of the Pantry Donor Wall inside the new facility, if they wish.

The campaign is about more than building a new pantry; it is about creating a permanent, high-impact solution for food access in Medway, one that will help meet today’s needs while preparing for the future.

For additional information about the campaign and to make a gift, scan the QR code or contact the Medway Food Pantry at [email protected].