Each Friday afternoon, a long line of cars waits off North Granby Road in front of the meetinghouse of Granby Congregational Church’s North Campus. On warm summer days, people mingle between the cars, and on frozen winter days, the windows are rolled up, but the line persists. When the clock strikes 3 p.m., Open Cupboard Pantry opens for business, and cars inch forward to a row of volunteers ready to load bags of groceries into the trunk of each vehicle. The steady line of cars today is a sign of how far the pantry has come since its humble beginnings five years ago.
Open Cupboard Pantry started during the height of the 2020 pandemic with a simple idea: to provide “snack packs” to help local families who were struggling. Kerri Crough, one of the co-founders, said, “It was a way for the church to give back to the community during COVID because people were losing their jobs, and we were trying to get them through the weekend.”
From the start, there was no cost, no forms to fill out, and no questions asked: whoever came to the church received food. Today, the weekly food pantry has expanded to include coordinated dinner and breakfast bags, meat, fresh produce, and yes, a bag of individually packaged snacks.
The philosophy of welcoming anyone who needs help has remained even as Open Cupboard Pantry’s operations have expanded. Each year has seen increased food costs as well as increased weekly clients. The first two weeks of the pantry in November 2020 served 17 cars and 82 individuals. The busiest week in September 2025 served 40 cars, 65 households, and 174 individuals.
Crough and her wife, Beth Lindsay, co-manage the pantry as volunteer members of Granby Congregational Church, spending several days each week ordering food, coordinating pickups and volunteers, and running the handout on Friday afternoons. Their dedication has helped transform Open Cupboard from a small church ministry into a community-wide effort to care for neighbors near and far.
Although Granby Congregational Church provides the primary financial support for food and the physical space for the pantry, Open Cupboard’s growth has been made possible by community partnerships. Lox Stock and Bagels was the first Granby business to partner with the pantry in 2021, providing boxes of bagels every week. Holcomb Farm’s Fresh Access followed suit with fresh produce during the growing season each year. Geissler’s Supermarket, Northwest Community Bank and others have hosted food drives. Laundry Works washes and folds the reusable bags that hold the groceries each week, free of charge. Cahill Motors helped Open Cupboard purchase a van to pick up large food orders and has since added a donation cup to its counter, telling anyone who comes in asking for directions to first give something to the pantry.
The partnerships also extend to individuals from across Granby who are not members of the church but who believe in the mission of Open Cupboard Pantry and want to be part of it. One neighbor, who walks by daily, slips Crough $20. Another neighbor on Day Street, whom the pantry volunteers affectionately call “the egg lady,” donates six to seven dozen eggs from her chickens every week.
Diane Smith, a regular volunteer from the community said, “Watching the generosity and the care that goes into every week’s bags, the humor and most of all the compassion for people who are struggling at the moment has filled my spirit.”
Smith is part of a large group of volunteers that work throughout the week picking up food from partners, organizing the pantry space, and packing bags for the Friday handout. Don Shaw, who volunteers on Monday morning when the main food delivery arrives, says when asked what inspires him to do this work, he replied, “I have enough, and I want others to have enough, too.”
Those who wish to support Open Cupboard Pantry can do so in many ways: by volunteering, organizing a food drive, or offering financial support to help purchase fresh food and supplies. Donations can be made through Granby Congregational Church and online at granbycongregationalchurch.org