Alex Pittelli ‘26

by Alex Pittelli ‘26 on October 2, 2025

Just a few minutes off campus on Branch Avenue is St. Edward’s Church, a beautiful brick church that stands out within Providence’s Wanskuck neighborhood. Although the church itself is rich with history, the focus will be on the humble building just west of it: the St. Edward Food and Wellness Center, which, for over two decades, has served as a food pantry for the food-insecure residents of Providence’s North End.

I spoke with Father Edward Cardente, who has been the pastor of the church since 2000, on the history of the Food Center. Prior to starting the pantry, Father Ed and volunteers had been serving hot meals to the hungry through St. Anthony Church in North Providence. However, after seeing a news segment on hunger in Providence in February of 2003, Fr. Ed was inspired to start the pantry to expand their mission of addressing food insecurity. He immediately knew something had to be done and put out calls to get to work. On March 26 of that same year, the pantry opened and has since continued to provide food to the community.

Today, the pantry is one of the top five biggest in the state of Rhode Island and provides over 400,000 pounds of food each year to the hungry. Their focus has been on client choice, with options not only for shelf-stable goods, but frozen and fresh food as well. The center is open on Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and 5 p.m.-6 p.m., and guests are given a bag to fill with their choice of food. Behind the scenes, the shipment arrives on Tuesday mornings from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, as well as donations from both supermarkets and parish members. Volunteers sort the food and stock the shelves to prepare for the distribution the next day. Over 1,500 families are in their active database and approximately 300 visit the pantry each week. The day I visited, 316 families had come through, each taking with them much-needed food.