Tag: food insecurity

  • Four Nonprofits in Neighboring JP Awarded Funding for Food Justice

    Derrel “Slim” Weathers (second from left), host of Award ceremony and creator of Heal the Hood and members on Jan 22. Photo by Enid Eckstein.

    Shown above, Food Justice Hub, Center for Faith Art and Justice, First Baptist Church.

    Four Jamaica Plain nonprofit organizations were awarded $5,000 in total in January in an effort to help end food insecurity in the neighborhood. 

    Heal the Hood, the First Baptist Church’s Centre Food Hub, The South Street Tenant Task Force and The Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center for Food Pantry received a little more than $1,000 each to carry out their food justice efforts.

    The funding originated during the lengthy federal shutdown last October. At that time, representatives from 25 organizations that advocate for food and other social justice issues met to address concerns about the stability of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Jamaica Plain residents in need of federal food assistance.

    They distributed over 10,000 flyers featuring a QR code for Jamaica Plain residents to donate to food justice efforts. The advocates decided to split the donations among four food organizations in the neighborhood.

    The additional funds would help the Centre Food Hub’s work supporting more than 300 households. That includes food delivery, staff, and helping to cover the cost for refrigeration systems that keep produce and meat fresh, said the Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird, executive director of the church’s food hub.

    “Our philosophy has always been, if you need food and you ask us for food …we will give you food,” said Wiest-Laird in an interview.

    The church has had a long mission to feed those in need in the neighborhood. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it ran a delivery meal and grocery service for people experiencing food insecurity.

    After the pandemic, volunteers continued to serve cooked meals twice a week and opened a low-cost grocery store, which helps fund a food pantry stocked with non-perishable items and fresh produce.

    Derrel “Slim” Weathers, executive director and founder of Heal the Hood — which hosted last month’s award ceremony — said the funding will help pay staff and continue food justice efforts.

    Heal the Hood grows its own herbs, carrots, lettuce and other vegetables in its own backyard garden. It provides food to more than 100 families three times each week – on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – and has 70 volunteers and roughly 20 people on staff.

    The organization also gets donations from local businesses and community members through the People’s Free Store program. Volunteers from Feed the Hood deliver groceries to families.

    Weathers created the program in 2019 two years after being freed from incarceration. He said he hoped the program would “liberate” his community, rather than “going back into doing moral corrupting” in the neighborhood.

    “[Heal the Hood] is building a new ecosystem to make sure the mechanisms for … people of all races [so they] can have a chance to be respected and treated equally,” Weathers said in an interview.

    A third organization receiving aid is South Street Task Force, which was created in December 2023 and collaborates with the YMCA by providing trucks that deliver free food to residents every two weeks.

    About 40 families rely on these deliveries, officials said.

    Perla Suazo, the organization’s secretary, said that the need for such services has increased in the past few months, as many local families fear venturing outside and being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

    Sauzo said the organization plans to use the additional funding to purchase online grocery gift cards for those immigrant families.

    “Families need support right now because most of the families stopped working, they’re afraid to go outside [and] they don’t have food,” Suazo said. 

    The fourth awardee, Southern Jamaica Plain Community Health Center, said it will use its $1,000 to buy gift cards, reusable bags and help offset cost for transportation for families, said Evelyn Gallego, a senior program coordinator.

    The center operates twice a week through a bodega-style market open to patients of the center on Mondays and the whole community on Fridays.

    “We have to stay in community and connect with each other, not just… physically, mentally, but also …with your heart,” Gallego said.

  • ‘Perfect storm of food insecurity’: State Anti-Hunger Task Force ramps up listening sessions

    Even though the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are flowing again and the first of two major holidays this season has passed, experts who help people access food say those affected by the federal government shutdown still feel extreme unease.

    “The toll on people’s mental health was astonishing,” said Erin Ferrentino, food access manager at Grow Food Northampton, the nonprofit that runs a community farm. “We’re still dealing with that — people just not knowing when the other shoe is going to drop, when their benefits are going to get taken away.”

    As regional food banks continue to report an increase in sign-ups for free meals since the government shutdown ended on Nov. 12, the state’s Anti-Hunger Task Force is holding listening sessions throughout November and December to gather feedback as it prepares to advise the governor’s office on long-term solutions for addressing hunger, food insecurity and related economic hardships impacting communities.  

    Gov. Maura Healey created the task force in July, not long after Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill that contained reductions to SNAP benefits. In direct response to these reductions, the task force is bringing together leaders from state and local governments, food banks, nonprofit and business leaders and others to develop recommendations. 

    Just as this work was getting into full swing, “the shutdown happened, in the middle of our task force work,” said task force co-chair Allison Bovell-Ammon, referring to the federal government’s closure that started on Oct. 1.

    Bovell-Ammon, assistant undersecretary for Children & Family Services at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, heads the task force with Ashley Randle, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, and Alana Davidson, director of communications at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education.

    The task force is looking into solutions that would support existing food assistance programs, such as boosting labor in school breakfast programs, increasing funding of the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program and strengthening support for the state’s agricultural sector. 

    “We know that the food pantries and food banks are stretched because of the extra pressure that was placed upon them during the federal shutdown and the delay in SNAP benefits,” said Randle, a South Deerfield native who has served as agricultural commissioner since 2023.  

    According to Randle, one in three Massachusetts residents are considered “food insecure” and SNAP cuts “exacerbated the need” for food assistance. Bovell-Ammon also said approximately 9,500 immigrants in Massachusetts who have legal status in the U.S. and were previously eligible for SNAP benefits are at risk of losing their benefits over the course of next year. 

    Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, also a member of the Anti-Hunger Task Force, said that transportation is one major unique challenge that prevents people from accessing food in western Massachusetts. 

    “It’s a perfect storm of food insecurity,” Comerford said. 

    Springfield’s pressures are “continuing to grow,” Randle said, adding that the city has the “highest rate of individuals that are on SNAP.” 

    Comerford said she hopes the task force will expand collaboration between the state government and private agencies, such as encouraging tax credits for farms that donate their produce. 

    “I do think part of being able to survive the current administration and Congress is us, in Massachusetts, being as strong and as coordinated and strategic with the dollars that we do have as possible,” Comerford said. 

    Bovell-Ammon emphasized the task force’s role in finding long-term solutions to support immigrants and other communities declared ineligible for SNAP benefits under the One Big Beautiful Bill. 

    “While the impact of the shutdown was very deep even in that very short period of a delay of benefits, we know it had a destabilizing effect. We also know that there will be long-term impacts from the law change that we will continue to see in our emergency food system,” Bovell-Ammon said. 

    Need remains high

    Kaitlyn Ferrari, the interim program manager of Manna Community Kitchen, a Northampton nonprofit established by St. John’s Episcopal Church that provides hot meals to hungry people, said they recruited more labor to prepare for the influx of families in need of Thanksgiving meals. 

    A year ago, Manna fed 1,500 people for Thanksgiving, and prior to the holiday Ferrari said the organization was expecting about 2,000 people. Outside of the holiday, she said Manna has witnessed a steady increase in people since the COVID-19 pandemic, estimating before the pandemic, Manna saw at least 10 new people each day. Now, the food bank provides meals for more than 300 people a day. 

    Ferrari stressed the rising cost of food as another challenge Manna faces, estimating a box of chicken that previously cost $70 now costs more than $100. 

    “The cost is higher, the need is greater, and we’re just doing the best we can to provide free meals for anyone that needs one,” Ferrari said. 

    The Northampton Survival Center similarly saw the number of households signed up for its choice-pantry service double. The service enables people to choose from a variety of available free food options, rather than giving registered households prepacked food boxes. 

    According to Alexander Léger-Small, the assistant program director, about 90 households were registered for the service last year; since the beginning of October, more than 200 households have registered. Léger-Small said this increase occurred during the government shutdown, as households experienced the cuts to SNAP benefits. 

    “We are looking at our busiest year since the start of the pandemic,” Léger-Small said. 

    Highland Valley Elder Services provides food to the elderly community through its “Meals on Wheels” program, which delivers meals directly to individual homes and senior centers. Nutrition Director Riley Brown estimated the program delivered over 1,100 meals for Thanksgiving. 

    Brown said the federal government’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program has “dwindled” in its variety of options that it offers to elderly service programs , restricting the kinds of nutritious meals that it can provide. The CSFP is meant to serve low-income individuals over the age of 59 by distributing foods to organizations like Highland Valley for a reduced price.