Head of Pawtucket soup kitchen to be honored as “Female Hero” by Congressman Cicilline

The executive director of the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen will be honored later this month by U.S. Congressman David Cicilline as a "Female Hero" at the congressman's annual Women's Luncheon.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WLNE) – The executive director of the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen will be honored later this month by U.S. Congressman David Cicilline as a “Female Hero” at the congressman’s annual Women’s Luncheon.

Adrienne Marchetti will join the ranks of previous recipients like actresses Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing, who were honored for their work off-screen for various causes.

“I was kinda taken agast,” Marchetti said, recalling the phone call from Congressman Cicilline last week when he told her the news. “I said to him, you gotta be kidding me! You couldn’t find anybody else? Cause there has to be somebody else more deserving!”

The soup kitchen is located in the basement of St. Joseph Church in Pawtucket. It’s where Marchetti has spent every day of the last 11 years, never taking a day off.

“Thirty years, unfortunately, which is not a good thing to say,” Marchetti responds when asked how long she’s been working in soup kitchens. “Because when you think about it, to know that people have been suffering from hunger all this time and we still have to do this, it’s just tragic I think.”

Her days start at 5 a.m. with cooking breakfast. Once that’s served, Marchetti cleans up and then heads out to pick up donations. She said local restaurants donate food to the soup kitchen, and since COVID-19 hit the state, businesses have donated takeout containers to them.

“I cook, do all the ordering, clean, write the grants, do the paperwork. We have the homeless, the no-income people, the low-income people, we have disabled, we have veterans, the elderly,” Marchetti said.

Once lunchtime comes, Marchetti makes nearly 100 sandwiches a day, delivering them to the homeless in downtown Pawtucket.

“I want to be that person to them that they can count on. Every day they get up, go to the soup kitchen, eat, you know, wait around to the next meal, and go back. I mean, that’s what they do, and so you have to be there for them and make sure they have a life.”

Marchetti said she doesn’t keep track of how many hours she works but assumes its more than 70 hours a week.

But, she said, she doesn’t look at it that way.

“What I do, it doesn’t seem like work. It just seems like what you would do naturally, you know? So that’s why I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe I won an award like this.”

Last month, the soup kitchen served about 4,500 meals, a big jump from when Marchetti started over a decade ago, feeding around 500 people a month.

That’s why she hopes the honor from the Congressman will shed light on the issue of hunger, not only in Pawtucket but across the country. And while the award names her a female hero, Marchetti said the people she serves are the real heroes.

“To get up every morning, knowing what you’re facing, and to be able to get up and actually do what you have to do to survive, that’s amazing to me.”

The Congressman’s luncheon will be held virtually on June 30th. Click here for more information.

© WLNE-TV 2020