LEOMINSTER – The community is paying tribute to the founder of Ginny’s Helping Hand, a woman who leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of helping those in her community in need by giving them a dignified hand up, not a handout.
According to her obituary, Virginia “Ginny” White died peacefully at her South Carolina home on Dec. 4 at age 75 surrounded by love and her loyal dog Chico. Born on April 26, 1950, in Boston, Ginny grew up in Billerica and devoted her life to helping others.
A lifelong caregiver, she began her career as a nurse’s aide and later founded what is now Ginny’s Helping Hand in Leominster, a vital community resource supporting the homeless, hungry, veterans and families in need. Even after retiring to South Carolina, she continued serving others with the same compassion and generosity.
She is survived by her grandchildren, great-grandson, brothers Robert Hobbs and John ‘Jack’ Hobbs, and many beloved family members and friends. She was preceded in death by her son, Jack White, her parents, and several siblings, and a memorial in her honor will be held in May at Coggshall Park in Fitchburg.
“For 35 years, Ginny White led Ginny’s Helping Hand with an open heart and an unwavering commitment to her community,” said Brandon Robbins, who came on as executive director of the nonprofit organization in April 2022. “She believed in giving people a hand up, not just in meeting immediate needs but in helping them regain dignity and stability. What started as one woman simply doing the right thing became a lifeline for thousands of families. Ginny’s impact can be felt all across this community, and her legacy will continue through the work we do every day in her name.”
Former longtime Ginny’s Helping Hand Executive Director Sue Chalifoux-Zephir, who along with her husband Ed managed Ginny’s after Ginny retired in September 2013, said in 2022 that Robbins was a great fit to carry on what Ginny started.
“We are proud of the organization we have built and the hard work of our team that makes it possible to serve our community every day,” Sue said then.
Ginny initially launched her initiative in 1978 to support people in the area with clothing and food. She established the food pantry in 1980, which at the time served nine to 11 families daily, and soon after she opened the thrift shop that to this day still has a double purpose — to offer affordable clothing and have the proceeds provide funding for the food pantry.
Over the years, the food pantry had expanded to provide healthy food and other necessities to thousands of people throughout North Central Massachusetts. Nowadays Robbins and the dedicated Ginny’s crew provide food for more than 1,800 households and 5,000 individuals across the region every month, the continuation of what Ginny started decades ago.
Longtime city resident Jim McHale has been volunteering with Ginny’s Helping Hand over for 20 years, going back to when Ginny was around. He said it was his lawyer who recommended the nonprofit when McHale retired himself and was looking for volunteer opportunities to fill his time.
“He told me the closest thing to Mother Theresa in town is Ginny White,” McHale recalls his lawyer telling him.
McHale , who is now 88, worked in a homeless shelter in Boston for 15 years so he was familiar with the demographics Ginny provided assistance to.
“I knew all about tough love,” he said.
He reported that “there were always a couple guys staying” at Ginny’s, recovering alcoholics who Ginny would take back in even after they relapsed. McHale also shared that Ginny traveled many times with a truck full of clothing and food to areas of the country hit with hurricanes and such, Missouri and New York and Louisiana and other places.
“It is a tremendous thing that she started,” McHale said of Ginny. “I have nothing but admiration for her. Sometimes she had a little rough edge, I mean Mother Theresa wasn’t perfect. She was tough but in the best way.”
What started out as a couple freezers in the basement of the Leominster food pantry evolved into an area full of furniture, appliances, housewares, anything people might need on top of food in their bellies and clothes on their backs. McHale said Ginny would welcome anyone and everyone and would even give people rides, a population that included immigrants and those from all walks of life.
“Everybody was treated the same, Black, white, Latino. She never talked that way, but you could see,” McHale said of his mentor who was well-known in the community. “It was always done with total respect for everybody, and she taught me that attitude of respect. She was a simple woman but did marvelous things.”
McHale ’s wife Sue McHale has been volunteering at Ginny’s alongside her husband for many years now. The couple has lived in Leominster for over 25 years, and Jim McHale said they are proud to be part of carrying on Ginny’s selfless and compassionate legacy.
“My lawyer was right. She really was a saint.”
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