Leaders of a food pantry that has been operating out of the Albany Town Hall for several years say it would have nowhere else to go if the town selectboard pushes it out of the building.
A selectboard member is leading a move to free up the space, contending that the food pantry was invited in as a temporary measure during Covid-19 lockdowns and has worn out its welcome.
In a series of recent selectboard meetings, Phillip Beaudry, a member of the Albany Selectboard, has pushed to remove the Albany Food Share from the town hall, which it uses as a distribution site every Saturday.
Beaudry contends that the food distribution has prevented other community members from using the space for receptions, memorial services, and other gatherings during a significant portion of the weekend.
For members of the Food Share, however, a forced relocation of the program in the near future would mean having the rug swept out from under their feet. Even after the pandemic lockdowns, the organization has continued to have a large impact in the community, serving 393 unique individuals between July 2022 and June 2023, according to statistics provided by the organization.
“We just don’t have another viable location right now,” said Hannah Dreissigacker, the food shelf’s coordinator. “Certainly if we were to get kicked out, that would be pretty catastrophic for the services we’re offering.”
Now, after several months of debate between Beaudry and advocates of the Albany Food Share, the issue may come to a head at a selectboard meeting on Oct. 17, when discussion of the Food Share is on the agenda. In an interview with VTDigger, Beaudry suggested he would push for approval of a policy that would effectively ban the organization’s use of the building on Saturdays.
In an interview, Beaudry said several members of the Albany community had reached out to him to express frustration about the Food Share’s occupation of the building.
“I’ve heard from people in Albany who have had to rent the town hall in Irasburg because they can’t use their own, and to me that’s kind of sad,” Beaudry said. “I feel that our town hall should be available for the general public and for the townspeople on an ongoing basis.”
He has also taken issue with the Food Share’s practice of storing food and supplies in the town hall entryway on an ongoing basis, which he says gives the space an atmosphere of dishevelment and unprofessionalism.
It’s unclear how the other two selectboard members would vote if the occasion arises at the upcoming meeting. Chairperson Brian Goodridge described himself as “kind of split in the middle” on the issue, saying he supports the Food Share and understands its position while echoing some of Beaudry’s frustrations with its occupation of the space.
In an interview with VTDigger, selectboard member Normand Inkel stressed that the Food Share’s use of the town hall was always meant to be a temporary arrangement. “They feel like they want to stay there permanently, but that can’t happen,” said Inkel. When asked, he declined to say how he would vote on Beaudry’s policy proposal, saying he wants to see how the discussion goes before making a firm decision.
Dreissigacker, however, questioned whether the selectboard alone should define the Town Hall’s purpose.
“I feel like this should all be part of a larger community discussion about what the town wants and needs, and what do people want to happen in their town hall,” she said in an interview. But when she raised the possibility of an alternative decision-making process at a September selectboard meeting, Beaudry responded by saying, “Three people let you come in here. We were voted in to make those decisions,” according to the Barton Chronicle.
As for the upcoming meeting, Dreissigacker said she’s “hoping we can have a civil, productive discussion and hear from a lot of people, and hopefully we can come to some sort of compromise.”
Past discussions, however, have grown contentious. At a selectboard meeting in April, Beaudry broached the topic of relocating the Albany Food Share to the town recycling facility and was rebuked by a handful of community supporters of the food pantry, who raised concerns about keeping food in a potentially unsanitary environment. In an argument that followed, one resident went so far as suggesting that Beaudry should resign from the board, according to the minutes of the meeting reviewed by the VTDigger.
At another selectboard meeting in September, he introduced a proposal that would prevent the Food Share from reserving the Town Hall every Saturday and from storing food and supplies in the building. The proposal was tabled pending further discussion at the upcoming meeting.
To Beaudry, however, the community has spent enough time discussing the issue, and he thinks Albany Food Share has had adequate time to figure out an alternative space to operate in.
