Saturday, July 19, 2008 1:07 AM EDT
Jonnycake Center grows with need, new location
 Jonnycake Center is ready to meet needs of impoverished, said Leo H. Dery, board of directors' president. |
The relocated Bradford Jonnycake Center has grown in every respect during its first year of operation.
From thrift shop to food pantry, to monetary assistance and ever-expanding educational opportunities, the Center is, more than ever, ready to meet the needs of the impoverished, said Leo H. Dery, president of the center’s board of directors.
Why was Industrial Drive chosen as the new base? The answer is simple, according to Dery. “Forty percent of our funding was going to Westerly and of that almos another 40 percent was going to the North End. When we had the opportunity to relocate at the Industrial Drive site it was relocating to an area where we saw a lot of need.”
Derry explained, “When we were in Bradford we did 48,000 equivalent meals out of our food pantry. In our transition year in 2007 when we moved here we did 111,000 meals. So in our first seven or eight months here we actually doubled what we had done the year before. This year, in 2008, we’ll probably do 150,000 meals.”
In a recent move, the center added a milk program to the pantry at a cost of about $12,000 a year, because milk was the most requested item.
Partnering with Garelick Farms, the Center purchases nutritionally complete 1 percent milk because it has the lowest price.
“We’re giving the milk away,” Dery said.
Food is purchased from the Rhode Island Food Bank and the Center receives donations from other agencies as well. Despite that help, it costs $60,000 annually to maintain the program.
“My pantry is continually empty,” Dery said. “Today we put in a fill-in order to Wal-Mart just to buy some products the food bank doesn’t have. The food bank has a problem maintaining food supplies as well.”
The problem of trying to meet the demand for food is exacerbated by the drop in donations from food manufacturers.
These manufacturers once donated their excess capacity to the food bank but are now selling it to other food outlets such as discount stores, Dery said.
“We’ve lost the availability of variety and now we’re losing quantity as well.” That translates to more expense for the center, Dery said.
The center, in its second season of providing fresh vegetables for clients, holds an outdoor market at the back of its building for about 12 weeks. Fresh food from Rhode Island farms is distributed as well as donations from local farms.
Because of limited space at the former Bradford center, no educational programs were offered, Dery said. Now, partnering with The Education Exchange in Wakefield, the Westerly Jonnycake Center offers General Education Development classes and already boasts a graduate class. Classes in English as a second language are underway, as are computer classes. With the donation of nearly a dozen computers, classes are conducted from 9 a.m. to noon daily in an air-conditioned classroom.
The staff has increased from 3 paid employees in Bradford to 12 at the new store. “We’re expanding the store by 25 percent,” Dery said, noting the operation generates the funds to pay all of the operating expenses for the organization.
The facility doesn’t have the capacity, personnel or volunteers to clean and repair donated clothing or wash glassware or dishes, although two handymen make sure the small appliances donated are running properly.
Unfortunately one of the biggest expenses faced by the charity is the cost of throwing away donations that can’t be used or sold. Soiled or ripped clothing is bagged up and sent to be compressed into cardboard, which is recycled for funds that go into national educational programs. Electronic waste is of no use to the Center and must also be discarded.
Dery credits a great deal of the Center’s success to its core of volunteers and the support it receives from donors. “Donations to the Jonnycake Center go right to the program,” Dery said. “If you give $25 to the food pantry, that’s where it’s going. It’s not going to anything else.”
“As a resource center we try to help with myriad solutions. We do a lot of networking with other organizations; we do a lot of referrals. We’ve gone from a local pantry in Bradford to a much more regional center.”
Sometimes, Dery notes, the Center can help in cases where there is a loss of job, or illness in the family by making referrals to other agencies. He says, “Sometimes the problems are chronic and sometimes they are temporary. So what we try to do is see if we can help them in other ways.”
Sometimes just serving as an emergency food center where clients can obtain a seven to 10-day supply of food once a month will suffice. But, Dery said, “a lot of these situations don’t rectify themselves in the short term. Usually if you’re hungry, you’re hungry for long term.”
As testimony of that, 41 new families registered last month for the Center’s food pantry, “all as a result of the economic climate,” Dery said.
From thrift shop to food pantry, to monetary assistance and ever-expanding educational opportunities, the Center is, more than ever, ready to meet the needs of the impoverished, said Leo H. Dery, president of the center’s board of directors.
Why was Industrial Drive chosen as the new base? The answer is simple, according to Dery. “Forty percent of our funding was going to Westerly and of that almos another 40 percent was going to the North End. When we had the opportunity to relocate at the Industrial Drive site it was relocating to an area where we saw a lot of need.”
Derry explained, “When we were in Bradford we did 48,000 equivalent meals out of our food pantry. In our transition year in 2007 when we moved here we did 111,000 meals. So in our first seven or eight months here we actually doubled what we had done the year before. This year, in 2008, we’ll probably do 150,000 meals.”
In a recent move, the center added a milk program to the pantry at a cost of about $12,000 a year, because milk was the most requested item.
Partnering with Garelick Farms, the Center purchases nutritionally complete 1 percent milk because it has the lowest price.
“We’re giving the milk away,” Dery said.
Food is purchased from the Rhode Island Food Bank and the Center receives donations from other agencies as well. Despite that help, it costs $60,000 annually to maintain the program.
“My pantry is continually empty,” Dery said. “Today we put in a fill-in order to Wal-Mart just to buy some products the food bank doesn’t have. The food bank has a problem maintaining food supplies as well.”
The problem of trying to meet the demand for food is exacerbated by the drop in donations from food manufacturers.
These manufacturers once donated their excess capacity to the food bank but are now selling it to other food outlets such as discount stores, Dery said.
“We’ve lost the availability of variety and now we’re losing quantity as well.” That translates to more expense for the center, Dery said.
The center, in its second season of providing fresh vegetables for clients, holds an outdoor market at the back of its building for about 12 weeks. Fresh food from Rhode Island farms is distributed as well as donations from local farms.
Because of limited space at the former Bradford center, no educational programs were offered, Dery said. Now, partnering with The Education Exchange in Wakefield, the Westerly Jonnycake Center offers General Education Development classes and already boasts a graduate class. Classes in English as a second language are underway, as are computer classes. With the donation of nearly a dozen computers, classes are conducted from 9 a.m. to noon daily in an air-conditioned classroom.
The staff has increased from 3 paid employees in Bradford to 12 at the new store. “We’re expanding the store by 25 percent,” Dery said, noting the operation generates the funds to pay all of the operating expenses for the organization.
The facility doesn’t have the capacity, personnel or volunteers to clean and repair donated clothing or wash glassware or dishes, although two handymen make sure the small appliances donated are running properly.
Unfortunately one of the biggest expenses faced by the charity is the cost of throwing away donations that can’t be used or sold. Soiled or ripped clothing is bagged up and sent to be compressed into cardboard, which is recycled for funds that go into national educational programs. Electronic waste is of no use to the Center and must also be discarded.
Dery credits a great deal of the Center’s success to its core of volunteers and the support it receives from donors. “Donations to the Jonnycake Center go right to the program,” Dery said. “If you give $25 to the food pantry, that’s where it’s going. It’s not going to anything else.”
“As a resource center we try to help with myriad solutions. We do a lot of networking with other organizations; we do a lot of referrals. We’ve gone from a local pantry in Bradford to a much more regional center.”
Sometimes, Dery notes, the Center can help in cases where there is a loss of job, or illness in the family by making referrals to other agencies. He says, “Sometimes the problems are chronic and sometimes they are temporary. So what we try to do is see if we can help them in other ways.”
Sometimes just serving as an emergency food center where clients can obtain a seven to 10-day supply of food once a month will suffice. But, Dery said, “a lot of these situations don’t rectify themselves in the short term. Usually if you’re hungry, you’re hungry for long term.”
As testimony of that, 41 new families registered last month for the Center’s food pantry, “all as a result of the economic climate,” Dery said.
shannen in kentucky wrote on Jul 17, 2008 7:31 AM:
" I think we were all in shock when the johnny cake center was ready to move from Bradford to Westerly. We all had our comfort zone knowing the center was just up the road in bradford like it had been for many many years. Most of us were a little shocked when we seen the prices had gone up as well,but like any place that sells things ,prices have to go up in order to meet the goal of profit margens and to pay for the bigger builden.But out of all that price hike the money was used to supply heat and electricity to many familys.Food has always been there when a family came in with a emergency need of food. I think the johnny cake center has done a great job and the staff at the center are wonderful, and are always there to help.When i seen high prices on things i knew that some family was going to eat and stay warm a little longer thanks to the items that were sold.SO KEEP ON DONATING RHODE ISLANDERS,YOUR OLD STUFF KEEPS FAMILYS FED AND WARM! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ALL MY FRIENDS AT THE CENTER! "
melanie wrote on Jul 15, 2008 10:29 AM:
" i always thought the johnnycake center was there to help the needy, when i walk in and c furniture for $600, i know i am not in the right place. These things r donated, u r not an antique shop, which is what u r turning into. DO U THINK THE NEEDY CAN AFFORD A DINING ROOM TABLE AND CHAIRS FOR THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY? THAT IS A GOOD PORTION OF OUR RENT! WHO U R BENEFITING R THE ONES WHO BUY YOUR THINGS, THE ONES WHO I C DOWN THERE DRIVING MERCEDES, AND VOLVOS. U were much more "poor" oriented when u were in Bradford! "
Westerly Resident wrote on Jul 15, 2008 10:22 AM:
" It'd be nice if the Town Hall and the towns business's would come together to help out its residents by partnering with the Johnny Cake Center. Securing local funding and recurring food donations. The Johnny Cake Center has become an iconic entity of all that is good with the Town of Westerly. "
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