Shorthanded in both staff and volunteers, the Loaves & Fishes food pantry in Devens closed for at least two weeks last Friday, April 3. That day, the pantry supplied groceries to 92 families, more than double the number for an average Friday. Patricia Stern, the pantry’s executive director, said the health and safety of clients, volunteers, and staff was the reason for the temporary closure.
“‘Temporary’ is the operative word,” Stern said in a phone interview Monday. A press release from the pantry said, “We will be monitoring the situation closely and will reopen as soon as we feel we can do so safely.”
Loaves & Fishes provides food to families in seven communities—Ayer, Devens, Dunstable, Groton, Harvard, Littleton, and Shirley. The pantry gets up to 15,000 pounds of food a week from the Greater Boston Food Bank, all either free or at a greatly reduced bulk price. In addition, it buys some food from local suppliers and—until the COVID-19 outbreak—also collected food through in-kind donations.
Stern said she hopes the pantry’s clients are able to stretch their food supplies to last through the closure. Loaves & Fishes gave each family a double order last Friday—“two full grocery carts of food,” in Stern’s words. In fact, the staff has been encouraging clients to stock up on food at home since the state’s declaration of a state of emergency March 10.
Before closing, Loaves & Fishes gave nearly everything left on its shelves to other organizations that were still distributing food. Some “shelf-stable foods” like rice, peanut butter, canned tuna, and pasta went to area schools, so they could be delivered to families receiving lunches under the schools’ free or reduced-price lunch program. Stern said several area churches, Councils on Aging, Transitions, and two veterans’ organizations were also given food to distribute.
Loaves & Fishes had already switched to a drive-by grocery pickup to comply with social distancing guidelines. The pantry also stopped accepting in-kind donations to reduce the number of people handling the packaged foods. (Volunteers at the pantry and at the Greater Boston Food Bank wear gloves and face masks, Stern said.)
Risk too high
Still, a sizable number of volunteers felt the risk was too high for them to continue. Many of the volunteers and staff members at Loaves & Fishes are over the age of 60, which places them at higher risk from COVID-19. Stern said dozens of volunteers had withdrawn from the program since the virus outbreak began—some because they or their family members were ill, some because they were in quarantine after traveling, and some simply because of concern about contracting the virus.
While the pantry is closed, Stern said, she and the staff will work out a way to tweak the drive-through process to make it “no-touch,” further reducing the risk of virus transmission. They will develop new procedures to disinfect the interior of the building. And crucially, she said, they need to reach out to a younger cohort of volunteers, specifically those who are at home now rather than at work or school.
Loaves & Fishes still needs financial donations, even while it is closed. The shelves are nearly bare and will need restocking when it reopens. The pantry’s major fundraiser, the April 10 Great Food Walk, had already been converted to a virtual walk, which may not bring in as much as in previous years.
Stern expressed particular concern for people who have recently become unemployed and may not have enough food to see them through upcoming weeks. “If history is any guide,” she said, “we are going to be seeing the effects of this crisis for months to come, there’s no doubt.”
