HOMETOWN HEROES: Lori Hardwick-Way helps fill the void in Francestown

Francestown Community Church closed in 2021, but the needs the church served through its food bank, holiday baskets and Giving Tree remained.

Enter Lori Hardwick-Way.

Hardwick-Way was on the committee that organized the church’s community efforts, and after the church closed, she said people reached out to her for help.

“I sort of felt like I had to do something,” she said.

Hardwick-Way’s efforts started with buying food for people who needed it, and then she got an offer to help with shopping. Then someone donated a shelf to store food. Four years later, Hardwick-Way manages a “food resource” from her home in Francestown, with the shelf in the entryway, and a freezer and refrigerator in the garage. She is the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for July, nominated by Bonnie Teryek, who wrote, “ She is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met.”

Hardwick-Way said she serves 15 to 18 families, and one advantage of being a small operation is that she can try to customize based on what people ask for, which leads to less waste.

“Some are regulars, and others need help here and there,” she said.

Hardwick-Way said her son Jason Jr. — a 2024 ConVal High School graduate — has always been her right-hand man, and when needed, her husband Jason will make deliveries.

“We have some shut-ins and older folks who can’t get around,” she said.

Hardwick-Way has also kept the Giving Tree going, along with providing food baskets for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas and helping organize the free community suppers in town. She has also been doing welcome baskets for newcomers for about 20 years. She said she worked on baskets with her grandmother through Francestown Community Church when she was a child. Even though the program eventually ended, she took a basket to a new neighbor with her children, and “we all had so much fun for doing it, it all went a little bit crazy.”

Gift baskets include information on the town, UNH Cooperative Extension materials and a fire alarm from the Francestown Fire Department. They could also include a candle, a dishtowel, knitted potholders and soup cup holders, maple syrup, coffee mugs with teas and hot chocolate, bread from local businesses, gift certificates, jams, honey and business cards.

“Every basket can be very different, depending on what I have on hand,” she said.

Hardwick-Way, 51, has deep roots in Francestown. Her parents were both born in Francestown, and she’s the youngest of eight children. She is a mother of three, with four grandchildren and a fifth on the way.

“I’ve never left Francestown,” she said. “I actually live in the home my grandmother lived and my grandmother grew up in. My grandfather built the house.”