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Millis board licenses Lansing Millis Building first floor to Millis Ecumenical Food Pantry
Summary
The Select Board voted unanimously to license the first floor of the Lansing Millis Building to the Millis Ecumenical Food Pantry. Pantry Director Elizabeth Derwin said the move will improve accessibility for the pantry’s 91 registered families and reduce hazardous basement stairs; the pantry has logged about 1,400 visits in 2025 and has raised roughly $50,000 toward interior work.
The Millis Select Board on Jan. 12 voted unanimously to license the first floor of the Lansing Millis Building to the Millis Ecumenical Food Pantry, a pantry director and volunteers told the board would improve accessibility and dignity for clients who currently use a church basement.
"We right now have 91 registered families," Pantry Director Elizabeth Derwin said. She told the board the pantry recorded about 1,400 separate shopping trips in 2025 and that many clients and volunteers are challenged by the basement’s narrow, steep stairs and the lack of elevator access.
Derwin and volunteer Ellen Rosenfeld described how the first‑floor space would allow the pantry to reconfigure shelving around existing windows and provide an accessible entry (the town will install a handicap ramp). Rosenfeld said volunteer fundraising has yielded roughly $50,000 to date and that an additional roughly $20,000 would complete the remaining interior work; painting quotes rose from about $15,000 to roughly $21,000–$22,000 after plastering work clarified the scope.
Board members praised Ellen and the pantry volunteers and moved to enter into a license agreement with the Millis Ecumenical Food Pantry to use the first floor; the motion carried unanimously.
Next steps: Town staff and pantry leadership will execute the license agreement and coordinate construction/donation logistics. The pantry will continue to accept donations at Roche Brothers and the Church of Christ and operate its regular hours (Saturdays 10 a.m.–noon; first and third Wednesdays 10 a.m.–noon) until the move is completed.
