It was a busy “Loading Day” for the volunteers at Fred’s Pantry.

Feeding Westchester’s truck arrived with a full belly – boxes of loose potatoes and cabbages; bags of crisp onions and dry rice; cases of canned beans and peaches; and breakfast cereal, pasta and raisins.

Men, women and teenagers moved into action, aided by two portable conveyors that rattled as food unloaded from pallets outside was slid down to waiting hands. As the truck emptied, the pantry’s shelves, pallets and refrigerators filled.

“It’s like this little miracle every Friday morning,” said Jim Knight.

Knight and Ruth Wells have seen a decade of miracles since February 2010.

Within months of becoming part of the inaugural class of volunteers at the newly opened Fred’s Pantry, Knight and Wells found themselves being asked to manage the fledgling operation at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Peekskill. 

Now, as both prepare to step down, they can celebrate 10 years of growth, friendships and meeting the needs of the growing number of individuals and families who leave the pantry each Saturday with bags full of nutritious food.

“The relationship with the volunteers, I will miss and then the Saturday relationship with the clients, especially the kids,” Wells said.

“But also the teenage volunteers have been really special to my heart and I will miss them a lot. We’ve seen kids grow up in this pantry – from being 12-year-olds doing confirmation hours or Bar Mitzvah projects to graduating from high school and going off to college.”

Fred Pantry’s weekly budget was about $250 and Knight, Wells and the other volunteers initially distributed just canned goods once a month.

Soon, the pantry became an agency of the Food Bank of Westchester (now called Feeding Westchester), installed refrigerators and a freezer and began distributing eggs, frozen meats and produce.

The pantry’s first manager moved away, and Knight and Wells became co-coordinators.

“I had noticed that this woman [who left] had this really good way of working with volunteers and making them feel welcome and like they were contributing something -- without her being like the boss,” Knight said. “I tried to continue that.”

Knight has coordinated the Friday delivery, which is no longer just limited to food from Feeding Westchester.

Second Chance Foods delivers rescued produce, and other local organizations and schools drop off canned and dry goods collected during their food drives.

Unloading food is the first part of the day. Volunteers then stock shelves in preparation for the next day’s distribution and bag loose produce, such as apples, onions and potatoes.

“Without really thinking all the much about it, it’s just continued to be, over the years, this kind of warm fun thing,” Knight said.

Wells has taken the lead on Saturdays, when dozens of families, seniors and working adults line up well before the doors open. Once inside, they register and then are escorted through two rooms of tables and shelves filled with dry and canned goods, frozen meats, fresh produce, breads and desserts.

“The pantry has grown enormously over time – both in terms of what we provide and also in terms of the number of clients who are coming to the pantry,” she said. “In the last year we’ve had an increase of 50 percent, which is astonishing.”

Fred Pantry’s budget is now $1,200 a week. New stainless steel refrigerators and a freezer have been delivered and are about to be installed. Two of them were purchased because of a successful grant application written by Wells.

But one thing has not changed: the zeal of the men, women and children who make the pantry successful.

Like Wells, it is the relationships Knight will miss.

“Just a wonderful group of people who come from all walks of life and different religions, and have different notions about politics,” he said. “That’s all secondary because everybody’s here to do this job.”