Volunteer Chris Botka and Rev. Cindy Dawson bring essential pantry supplies to a patron outside the St. Barnabas Church on Feb. 15. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — Since 2020, the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church at 71 Rumford Ave. has been helping people in need through its pantry, but it’s not for food.

Families in need can submit requests for basic personal hygiene, household cleaning, and paper products each month. Dedicated volunteers then go shopping, fill bags, and distribute these items to families in the community.

A distribution takes place outside the church on the third Saturday of the month from 9-10 a.m.

The latest one took place on Feb. 15. Among those driving to the church during the distribution was Linda Bentley of Mexico, who said she’s been a patron of this program since they opened.

“This is very important to me. And it is to everybody in the community. Everything is so high and it’s kind of hard to live, you know,” she said, adding, “This helps to make ends meet. And they’re so good to everybody.”

The Rev. Cindy Dawson said they started off providing for 11 households. Now they serve 38 households.

“We have some single people, some full families and with the world the way it is right now, we have some that have extended households,” she noted.

Dawson said to participate, people fill out an application which includes where they live, who is in their household and their contact information. Then they fill out a sheet by checking off available items at their pantry that they need.

The Rev. Cindy Dawson inside the church supply closet, which is always a bit low on essential pantry supplies on distribution day. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

On this day, volunteers Louise Arsenault and Chris Botka of Rangeley were assisting Dawson with loading bags of essentials to patrons who drove up. However, not all people have vehicles.

Dawson said, “We have one huge family that has like five or six bags and we load them into their wagon because they walk up from Rangeley Place (Rumford). There’s a couple of people who have no way of getting here, so we drop those bags off, one on Waldo Street and another up towards the elementary school.”

She said each individual bag is loaded by a team of five women (church members) during the week prior to the distribution.

Over time, Dawson said they get to know their patrons and she often refers them to services available if there is a need.

Dawson said their pantry started off with a New Initiative grant from the Diocese of Maine in March or April of 2020. “Then covid shut everything down. By the time we were able to open our doors, it was October (2020).”

“Not being a food pantry or being incorporated, we don’t qualify for any other type of assistance,” said Dawson, adding that some of the area churches donate as well as individuals.

She added, “Sometimes there’s things we don’t have included in our usual distribution, so when the weather is nice, we’ll put a table out there with extra things and invite people to come up to take if there’s something they need.”

Dawson said that for awhile, “we were really struggling, just barely making it every month. But the Green Church in Mexico was so helpful for us. They took up a monthly donation and kind of pulled us along for those months. Working together is important. We got together for one of their monthly dinners and provided all the pies for them.”

Friends of the River Valley is a supporter of the program, having provided this pantry with three different grants, according to Dawson. FRV is a centralized resource for funding, support, and partnership with existing programs and organizations to provide these needs and promote economic development opportunities.

For people willing to donate, Dawson said, “We can always use shampoos, conditioners, body washes, dish detergent. We also supply items like tooth brushes, tooth paste and deodorant.”

Dawson said anybody in the greater Rumford area is welcome to participate. To contact the pantry, call (207) 364-2193 or email stbarnabaschurch5@gmail.com