WINSLOW — Bruce Bottiglierie, co-founder and operations manager for the Winslow Community Cupboard, resigned abruptly Wednesday citing irreconcilable differences with others at the pantry about the cupboard’s future.

Peter Kemos, president of the organization’s board of directors, said Thursday the work to help provide food to those who need it will continue uninterrupted, and Bottiglierie’s work will have to be spread among other volunteers.

“I think any time you lose a volunteer who puts in that many hours, it’s going to be hard,” Kemos said. “It means there’ll be more work for the rest of us. It’s obviously sad to lose someone who puts in that much work, but it’ll get done.”

Contacted Wednesday, Bottiglierie, 54, said a main reason for leaving is that he wanted the operation to move in September into a building it purchased recently so that staff, volunteers and those receiving food would not have to work and wait in line outside in another cold winter, which poses a health and safety issue.

Bottiglierie, said in an email to cupboard volunteers and staff at Good Shepherd Food Bank and MaineGeneral Health that it had been a great five-plus years “creating this amazing program to feed families throughout Maine.”

The cupboard now is located in a small building on the grounds of the Winslow Congregational Church at 12 Lithgow St., where two walk-in coolers and freezers are located on an outside deck. Volunteers, mostly older adults, must physically unload pallets of food and do a lot of lifting.

The pantry bought a building at 26 Lithgow St. that is much larger and has seven garage bays that can accommodate a large freezer and cooler for pallets of food. A $50,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation enabled the cupboard to buy an electric forklift to move those pallets inside. Shelving for pallets also will be built with the money, and officials are trying to raise $150,000 to build a freezer and a cooler big enough to hold 32 pallets.

Bottiglierie, who co-founded the cupboard in early 2020, said his assistants, Kristi Letourneau and Steve Bolduc, disagree with moving into the new building this year.

Letourneau said Wednesday that she believes the cupboard is not ready to move this year. It doesn’t mean she and others don’t care about the volunteers and clients, she said. The cupboard’s fundraising committee worked hard to raise money for the building’s down payment and continues to work hard to pay the mortgage and flood insurance.

“We’ve been working really hard on grants and we hope they come back, but just to get electricity to the building will cost $16,000 and then we have to pay for electricity,” Letourneau said in a phone interview. “To bring the line from the pole to the building for three-phase power costs $16,000.”

Letourneau said via email Thursday she believes the cost for the freezers and coolers would be $160,000 and officials are always fundraising and working on grant applications to garner that money.

“Our existing coolers and freezers are not in great shape and break down often. The refrigeration company that does all our work has highly recommended us NOT move them to the new location. Steve Bolduc and myself would like to not move them in fear if we do move them and the refrigeration company might not be able to get them back up and running. Then what would we do?”

Kemos, the cupboard’s board president, said Thursday that the organization wants to move into the building but needs to do more fundraising to buy the freezers and coolers and to make the building safe for occupancy.

“If a miracle happens and $150,000 falls into our lap, we’ll move into it this winter,” Kemos said. “If that doesn’t happen, we hope to move in next winter. We’ll move in as soon as it is feasible, absolutely.”

Kemos emphasized that the cupboard last year distributed more than 2 million pounds of food to people in more than 30 towns and it was all done with volunteers, which number about 80. The work can be stressful, he said, reflecting on disagreements between volunteers and Bottiglierie’s resignation.

“It’s understandable that people get so stressed when they’re putting in 40 to 60, sometimes 80 hours a week, volunteering,” he said.

Bottiglierie said he was homeless as a child, and again later, and understands personally what people seeking food are experiencing. He said he loved his work at the cupboard and he is heartbroken at leaving, but he couldn’t work with his assistants and determined it would be better to lose one person, himself, than two.

“In my eyes, it’s jeopardizing volunteers’ health, safety to just not spend money to move into the building that we just purchased,” he said.

Volunteer Heather Merrow said Bottiglierie led the cupboard with his heart and with compassion, and losing him is huge.

“Bruce knows what it’s like when people come to the cupboard and they’re hungry, and he doesn’t say, ‘No,'”Merrow said. “He finds a way to make it work.”

Letourneau, who organizes and raises thousands of dollars as part of a regular lawn sale, acknowledged the transition won’t be easy with Bottiglierie’s departure and it’ll be challenging to fill his shoes.

“But until then, we will continue to do what we do and feed people,” she said.