By J.D. O’Gara

The Franklin Food Pantry is going solar! AND…it’s paid for!

“We actually received two grants,” says Franklin Food Pantry Executive Director Tina Powderly, who explains that a key feature of the new building design was increasing storage capacity for perishables. This took the form of two walk-in freezers and one walk-in refrigerator. 

“That drastically changed our ability not just to hold more pounds in our space, which meant more choices for our clients, but it vastly improves efficiency. According to our fiscal year 24 numbers, our pounds in went up 60%.”

Powderly explains that, since the Franklin Food Pantry gets most of its food from the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), before it had the capacity to store as much, “when we’d see something at low cost, we couldn’t always take it, because we didn’t have the capacity. The GBFB has free pallets of food we never would have been able to take in the old space.”

The new space allows the pantry to take advantage of low-cost opportunities not only for dry goods, but also for perishables.

More cold storage, however, does mean an increase in electricity needs.

“It was a strategic decision to invest in the walk-ins, because we knew it would allow us to be more cost efficient in our purchasing and securing donated items,” says Powderly, “but these items are huge consumers of electrical power.” Solar panel construction, then, was a wish list item. “We decided we’d keep our eye out for grant opportunities,” she adds.

One of those grant opportunities was the Citizens Bank “Champions in Action” program, for which the Franklin Food Pantry applied and was awarded $50K. 

Simultaneously, the pantry vetted solar companies, choosing Resonant Energy, which specializes in working on solar projects for nonprofits. The cost of the project altogether was projected to be about $76K.

“As part of our capital campaign, we were prepared to pay for the balance,” says Powderly, “but we applied to a second grant, Hammond Climate Solutions’ Moonshot Grant, and received $25K.” Powderly credits the food pantry’s Laura Doherty for managing this program, and Marsha Tait for securing the grants.

Not only will the project essentially be paid for, but Powderly adds that “the other reason we really liked Resonant Energy is there is a new federal rebate project specifically for nonprofits pursuing solar energy. There is a 30% rebate that Resonant will help us apply for, which will basically be cash back.”

Powderly explains that the solar panels will align with the food pantry’s aim to be a “responsible community member and reduce our environmental footprint and contribute to environmental sustainability.” To that end, the Franklin Food Pantry has also contracted with Black Earth to do composting. In addition, she says, “we’ve always participated in food rescue programs with local grocery stores.”

The pantry achieves the latter by working with Spoonfuls (formerly Lovin Spoonfuls), a food rescue organization. 

Ashley Stanley, founder and CEO of Spoonfuls (https://spoonfuls.org/), says Franklin Food Pantry’s sustainability initiative falls in line with her organization’s mission. Spoonfuls has delivered about 65,000 lbs. of food to the Franklin Food Pantry since it began partnering with them in 2022, and in fact, the organization planned its expansion with Franklin’s food pantry in mind.

“I think for us, it’s so important that our partners are committed to sustainability, because food recovery is in itself a sustainable activity. We’re talking about keeping food out of landfills. Uneaten food generally constitutes 6% of greenhouse gases in the United States, with food waste the number one material in landfills, and 76% of that is perishable food. So, for a partner of ours to be able to commit to sustainability in that way, that’s something we feel extremely good about. Not only are they committing to their own sustainability, but to a larger sustainable movement, not only locally, but for the planet. This is truly acting locally and thinking globally.”

Powderly notes that in the old food pantry building, Spoonfuls would come once a week with a few hundred pounds of food, and now, in the new building, they come twice a week, “so it’s a huge increase.”

The increase in delivery and capacity is welcome, because the need for food has increased, says Powderly. “If you compare the first six months of last year to the first six months of this year, the need is up 40%,” she says. Demographically, she says, “there’s always a contingent of folks on fixed incomes, but we are seeing a significant number of families with two working parents.” In fact, the pantry recently requested donations of diapers from the Franklin community—and the community responded generously. When asked, Powderly noted that the increase was not driven by migrant families housed in Franklin. 

The new 47-panel solar project at Franklin Food Pantry is estimated to cover about 40% of the pantry’s utility costs, a savings that can be redirected to purchase pantry client food and goods.

“With the installation of this new solar array, Franklin Food Pantry’s electricity bills will be cut in half,” says Madeleine Barr, Resonant’s VP of Outreach and Sales. “Producing power on site will help make the food pantry more resilient to increasing electricity costs and allow them to invest more funds in their vital community programming.”