UPDATE (Monday, April 9, 2018): This post has been updated to reflect the correct group of Town employees who helped relocate FAITH Food Pantry on March 26.

Moving day went much faster than anticipated and shelves are filling up quickly, so much so that volunteers of FAITH Food Pantry (FFP) made an announcement on Monday, March 26: the pantry's new location, on the grounds of St Rose of Lima Church, will open a week earlier than planned.

FFP's new, permanent location is on the eastern side of the Roman Church's campus at 46 Church Hill Road. Two years after learning that they would be looking for a new home, volunteers of the nonecumenical food pantry (its acronym stands for Food Assistance, Immediate Temporary Help) realized Monday morning that they would be able to welcome clients beginning Tuesday, March 27.

The food pantry will be open this Tuesday for its new weekday hours - 9:30 to 11: 30 am.

It will not be open on Thursday, March 29 - Maundy Thursday, which the pantry has traditionally been closed in the past - but it will continue with Tuesday and Thursday evening (6 to 7:30 pm) openings beginning next week.

FFP Vice President Jill LeBlanc was helping volunteers move items into place Monday morning.

"In four hours, everything was moved from our old location, over here," Ms LeBlanc said, looking between the two main rooms of the pantry's new home. "It's just incredible."

Employees from the town's Parks & Recreation department showed up to help on Morning, she said, which moved everything along very quickly.

"They helped us move from St John's into the Pecks Lane location," Ms LeBlanc mentioned. "They were a tremendous help then, too. They moved the refrigerators, the freezers, everything."

Engineer Peter Cloudas, a professional engineer who has volunteered his time and contacts to help FFP in its journey, was also among those moving bins to top shelves for storage. Meanwhile, Terry Ferris, Bill Jensen, Bill Landgrebe, and Jim Shpunt were placing cans and boxes into their new locations.

The new location is to the south of the rectory, southeast of the St Rose sanctuary. Clients will be invited to enter the fully handicapped accessible building through its main entrance, on the western side of the building. Those dropping off donations will be asked to use the north, or side, entrance. Signs will help people find the appropriate entrance.

Ground for the new building was

formally broken on October 26, 2017, a few weeks after crews for Merritt Construction Company, LLC began work at the site.

The

Borough Zoning Commission in March 2017 had unanimously approved construction of the 2,100-square-foot, single-story building. The town's Planning & Zoning Commission had endorsed the project the previous month.

FAITH had been operating out of a freestanding building at 31 Pecks Lane due to

the closing in 2016 of St John's Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, the food pantry's original home.

The pantry is a nonprofit volunteer-based organization that provides one week of groceries, as well as health and beauty, cleaning supplies and, when available, pet supplies, to Newtown residents.

A full update on the move and this week's opening will be posted online later this week. It will also appear int he March 30, 3018, print edition of The Newtown Bee.

[naviga:img class="aligncenter wp-image-311353" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SH_early-move-for-FAITH-Food-Pantry-Ferris-Cloudas-WATERMARKED.jpg" alt="SH_early move for FAITH Food Pantry -- Ferris & Cloudas WATERMARKED" width="800" height="533" /]

Peter Cloudas, a professional engineer who has donated his time to help FAITH Food Pantry move into its new home, places a bin of cereal atop a storage shelf Monday, March 26. Behind him, FFP volunteer Terry Ferris heads toward a shelf also being filled with items for clients. Due to an easier than expected move on Monday, volunteers have decided to open the new location on Tuesday, March 27.

-Bee Photo, Hicks