As President of the Bread of Life, Gary Christenson signs the Purchase and Sale Agreement for the new building at 54 Eastern Avenue for Bread of Life operations. This is truly a great day for the Bread of Life who have been looking for a new site for many years.
The two community service groups collaborated last week on a purchase-to-sale agreement to buy the office building at 54 Eastern Avenue, where the two will have joint facilities.
The final contract signings, which took place Dec. 23, culminated a year of negotiations to acquire the property.
Bread of Life executive director Thomas Feagley, who has been on the group’s staff since 1987, said he’s quietly thrilled with the new purchase.
“(Bread of Life) is safe in ways that it has not been safe before,” Feagley said. “We’ve reached the point that I’ve been wanting us to be at for years.”
Bread of Life has already made the move from their Main Street offices down to the Eastern Avenue building, formerly the headquarters of The Volpe Construction Company.
The new facilities are larger and cleaner, Feagley said, allowing the food pantry to more comfortably accommodate patrons to their free meals for at-risk adults and families.
“It affords the opportunity to the folks who are coming to the food pantry to not have to stand outside in a long line,” Feagley said. “It just makes it a better experience for the folks coming to us for food.”
The purchase will include the eventual construction of a new cafeteria on the .3-acre property — a separate, new building which will also include studio apartments for low-income housing on the upper floors.
Tri-CAP and Bread of Life will split the costs of the purchase-to-sale, with each eventually spending an estimated $1.5 million on the purchase.
Feagley said Bread of Life will start a capital campaign to raise donations in order to pay for the purchase.
Bread of Life started 31 years ago at St. Paul’s Parish as a food pantry, incorporating in 1992 to become a non-profit. The group offers free dinners four nights a week and provides a food pantry to 10 surrounding communities. The group also makes monthly distributions of food to at-risk elderly residents in Everett, Malden, Melrose and Wakefield, as well as providing cooked food, diapers, and footwear once a week to homeless people living in motels.
Tri-CAP provides many different services to Everett, Malden and Melrose, serving about 17,000 low-income individuals and families annually. Tri-CAP’s services vary from early childhood education services to housing assistance, to offering free Internet and e-mail accounts. The group will also keep its location at 110 Pleasant Street.