Welcome Denise Daniels, Our New Pantry Manager

Therefore, after almost 40 years of all volunteers compassionately serving our neighbors, we are pleased to welcome Denise Daniels as the Newton Food Pantry’s first Pantry Manager.

This new staff position will ensure the Newton Food Pantry’s sustainability and will allow us to accommodate even more food-insecure members of our community by extending our outreach, growing our client base, expanding our distribution hours, and adding new programming.

Denise comes to us from the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, where she was the Culinary Director and Chef for the past six years. In that role, she helped plan and develop 150–200 nutritious meals daily for kids ages 6–18. Denise was also responsible for collaborating with the Greater Boston Food Bank which supplied 100% of their food service items during her first year there. In following years, she established valuable relationships with local vendors for weekly food procurement — something she plans to leverage in her new position at the Newton Food Pantry.

In addition to her work with the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, Denise has held positions at a variety of institutions including: culinary arts instructor at El Paso Community College, intern at America’s Test Kitchen, and cook and manager at many restaurants and hotels. Her skills in outreach, service delivery, and partnership- and relationship-building are a great fit for the Newton Food Pantry. Denise is excited to use her expertise to advocate for and provide direct services to those facing food insecurity.

Some of her goals for the Newton Food Pantry include ensuring that the operations and client experience remains at the level of excellence that she has witnessed thus far, while introducing new ways to streamline food procurement and logistics in daily operations. She is also looking forward to meeting and interacting with the many volunteers that put so much effort into ensuring that the client experience is filled with compassion and dignity.

“I hope my experience in food ordering and vendor vetting will alleviate most of the heavy lifting our dedicated volunteers do each week to ensure the pantry is stocked with essential and specialty foods and personal care products,” Denise recently shared. Using her food and cooking knowledge, she hopes to expand services in the future by providing healthy and culturally-diverse recipes on our website, as well as take-home, kid-friendly ingredient boxes for families with kids that want to learn to cook. She also hopes to one day host farmers and gardeners who can teach families how to grow their own fruits and vegetables.

When she’s not working, Denise loves being outside in nature—hiking, biking, kayaking, or walking. She also enjoys relaxing by practicing her calligraphy and creating art.

When asked about people who inspire her, Denise immediately said Maya Angelou and shared her favorite quote: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” We are excited for Denise to share her skills and enable the Newton Food Pantry to do more for our community. And, based on our past few weeks with Denise, we are certain that our community will not forget how she makes them feel.