Boston developer Bruce Percelay has another Nantucket side gig in addition to his ownership of N Magazine and its affiliate, the Nantucket Current: fighting hunger on the island.
Percelay’s involvement in this cause began about two years ago, as he learned roughly one-quarter of the year-round residents face food insecurity. He launched Nourish Nantucket last year, working with Nourish Nantucket president Brooke Mohr and other local civic leaders, to help support the dozen or so hunger relief agencies and nonprofits on the island.
“It became clear to me that all these different agencies were working independently,” said Percelay, whose main business is the Mount Vernon Co. real estate firm in Boston.
Unsurprisingly, given Percelay’s day job, his involvement helped lead to a real estate deal — a transaction that was celebrated on June 14 with the grand opening of the Nantucket Community Food Hub on Boynton Lane, about 1.5 miles south of the island’s main ferry dock.
Nourish Nantucket teamed up with the Nantucket Land Bank last year to buy the former catering facility for $6.5 million; the ensuing renovations to turn it into the Food Hub cost another roughly $250,000, Percelay said. Nourish Nantucket will run its food programs there, such as providing summer meals for school-aged kids. The building will also serve as a new home for the Nantucket Interfaith Council’s food pantry, as well as for a venison operation run by the land bank, to process deer hunted on the island for food.
Photo: At the June 14 ribbon cutting for the Nantucket Community Food Hub, from left to right: Brook Mohr and Bruce Percelay of Nourish Nantucket, and Mark Donato, of the Nantucket Land Bank.
