MEXICO — GRAMPS, which serves free meals to the community, is looking for a new site.
The Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 on June 18 to no longer permit Greater Rumford Area Ministers Pantry Service to operate downstairs at the Town Office, where it has operated one day a week for more than 20 years.
A variety of reasons were given for that action, which was effective June 26, including cleanliness, past due rent, smoking and other issues outside the hall.
Carolyn Kennard, left, and Stepfanie Wilson of Greater Rumford Area Ministers Pantry Service are looking for a new site for the program, which serves free meals to the community. Effective June 26, GRAMPS is no longer permitted to serve from the Mexico Town Office. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times
Pantry Service Director Stefanie Wilson and Treasurer Carolyn Kennard met with Town Manager Jack Gaudet on July 2 to discuss their plight.
“My concern is the people that we serve,” Wilson said.
“What happens to these people, especially the 64 people that we serve Meals on Wheels to?” she asked. “We serve more than 50 people in-house. So you’re talking more than a hundred people in this community that depend on that food.”
GRAMPS was about eight weeks behind on the $10 per week rent of the room in the town hall, which Wilson said they still intend to pay.
“We have to depend on donations,” Kennard said. “And the donations have not been very good recently. I know we were behind, and we’ve been trying to catch up.”
Wilson noted that Rumford voters approved an initiated article in June to provide $500 for GRAMPS.
She requested and got permission from Gaudet to keep their stove, refrigerator, and a couple of coffee makers at the town hall as they search for a new serving site.
Wilson can be reached at stefaniewilson142@yahoo.com.
bfarrin@sunmediagroup.net
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