by Julie Gowel ·
Friday, December 20, 2024
Food insecurity is on the rise. The drive-thru line at Loaves & Fishes, the local food pantry located in Devens, keeps getting longer. The pantry, which serves the communities of Harvard, Ayer, Devens, Dunstable, Groton, Littleton, and Shirley, has seen a 34% increase in clients this year, according to Patricia Stern, its executive director.
A study conducted by Forbes Advisor revealed Massachusetts is the second most expensive place to live in the country. That might explain why Loaves & Fishes served 891 families this year, totaling nearly 2,500 individuals. Of those served, 28% were children, and here in Harvard, 8.5% of students in the Harvard Public Schools are considered low income, as defined by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
Every community struggles with food insecurity. At this time of year, charitable giving is on many peoples’ minds. Here in town, the Bromfield Middle School’s Project 351 ran a food drive to support Loaves & Fishes (see page 8). Townspeople have set up “neighborhoods” to collect items for donation to the pantry. Even the Harvard Public Library’s monthly Cookbook Club devoted this month’s potluck theme to food scarcity.
Volunteer Coordinator Eileen O’Dea speaks with volunteers before the pantry opens to clients for the day. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
To learn more about Loaves & Fishes, the Press interviewed staff and volunteers and observed operations during a morning when the pantry was open. Beginning at 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11, client counselors donned wet-weather gear and headed out into the pouring rain to start their “check-ins” with the five clients already queued in anticipation of the pantry’s 9 a.m. opening.
Over 20 volunteers on premises were “shopping” and packing grocery bags using the information gleaned from the client counselors regarding the number of people being fed and any preferences. By the time the pantry opened at 9 a.m., the line of cars stretched about a half-mile down the side of Barnum Road. It typically takes staff and volunteers another hour past closing time at noon to finish clearing the line.
Stern, who has been executive director of Loaves & Fishes since 2008, attributes the increase in client activity to a number of factors, including job loss, health issues, familial situations such as divorce, unanticipated household expenses, and the general increase in the cost of living in Massachusetts. Housing costs have gone up 5.13% in 2024, according to an analysis by Zillow.com. Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and business regulation reported earlier this year that the cost of groceries in the state has risen 6.6% in a 12-month period, making it the sixth-highest spike in the nation. Add in the rising cost of utilities, and the length of the line at Loaves & Fishes seems an inevitability.
Volunteers Jody Robinson and Andy Perkins (foreground) stock bins with USDA figs.
“We’re getting people that are coming back to us that haven’t been here at the pantry for many, many years,” said Stern. “They’re finding the pinch is just too much.” She noted the pantry distributes 15,000 pounds of food per month, which does not include the holiday meals they administer as a separate initiative. “Some clients will be with us for a very short period because of an incident that put them in a situation where they just needed some support, but many of them are generational poverty clients. We also have a lot of elderly folks who are living on a fixed income,” Stern said.
“They cycle in and out,” she continued. “The best part is knowing that in some small way, I’ve made a difference. I have an incredible staff, an incredible volunteer crew, and they’re really the ones that make it happen, and I am grateful to be part of that team.”
Part of that team includes Harvard resident and Loaves & Fishes client counselor Bill Loehfelm. His job is to greet clients, provide emotional and logistical support, and ensure the pantry experience is welcoming. “I just humanize the whole process a bit,” said Loehfelm.
“I remember a young woman who was in the shelter around the corner,” recalled Loehfelm. “She would walk [to the pantry] with her two young boys, and we’d give her food. We see her now and she’s transitioned out of [the shelter]. She’s in good housing. She has a car, she has a job, and she continues to come through the line. The boys are in the backseat, and they seem a little better off than they were a year ago. I think to myself, ‘This is how it’s all supposed to work. This woman landed at the bottom and through her own initiative and a lot of help from a lot of agencies, she’s living a decent life.’”
Bins of squash wait to be used for holiday meals.
Another Harvard resident with food insecurity on his mind and Loaves & Fishes in his heart is Hugh Silk. The family physician has turned into a roving provider of medical care to the homeless population in Worcester, in addition to his full-time job at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. He also participates in the Neighborhood Food Project for the pantry. Beginning over a decade ago, Silk and his family took over the monthly food collection for the Unitarian Church, where they are members.
“I was interested in what I could do here, locally,” recalled Silk. “My children and I went to drop food off at the pantry one Thanksgiving night. The line stretched as far as the eye could see, and my daughters said, ‘We need to do more.’ That’s when we took over the collection and delivery of pantry donations for the UU church. During the pandemic, there was an opportunity to form neighborhood groups to collect food and deliver it, because the pantry had to limit access. My younger daughter got very involved in that. Then I got asked to be on the board [of Loaves & Fishes]. That was a real eye-opener, as to how the pantry is run. You can just see, it’s run very well.”
One of the biggest challenges with food insecurity, said Stern, is the inability to see the problem. “It is invisible. Education is really the only way of getting our name out there,” she said. “Most of our clients come to us because of word of mouth from friends and family. They often think: ‘I can’t go to the pantry because I’m not homeless,’ but you can come to the pantry. You can come to the pantry if your transmission breaks and you have to have it fixed, but doing so means you can’t buy food to feed your children. You can come once; you can come as many times as you need, so I think it really falls on us as a community to get the word out that we are here and we can help, and it’s painless.”
Supporting the pantry is also painless, whether you want to volunteer, contribute food, or provide financial gifts. “It’s really very simple,” said Stern. “There’s an online registration form. You can fill that out on our website and our volunteer coordinator receives it. She’ll talk with you about the things that you’re interested in, what your availability looks like. Do you want to volunteer with a group of your colleagues at work, with a Scout group? Or do you just want to come in once a week or once a month or a couple times a year?” Loaves & Fishes boasts an impressive 421 volunteers, but more are always needed.
Additionally, residents wanting to support the pantry with food donations can sign up to be neighborhood coordinators. Loaves & Fishes provides easy instructions and supplies on its website under the section “Donate” and subsection “Neighborhood Food Program.”
Stern noted that financial contributions are what keep the pantry running. In partnership with the Greater Boston Food Bank, Loaves & Fishes spends $17,000 per month supplementing the donations provided to the pantry by individuals, organizations, and food drives. This expense covers the cost of fresh produce, meats, and other perishable items.
“If anyone is in the business of sourcing paper bags, we could certainly use assistance with those,” said Stern. The cost of brown paper bags used to package groceries for clients costs the pantry another $17,000 per year. Financial contributions can be made via the Loaves & Fishes website or in person at the pantry. Last year, $0.87 of every dollar donated went directly to client services.