The region’s food pantries are setting records, and it isn’t a good thing.
Salem Pantry announced last week that it served a “record-breaking number of guests in September,” with an organization-high 2,655 unique people served. and those households made 6,766 visits to the pantry, more than double the 3,295 visits reported in September 2022.
“For us, once we opened The Market at the end of April, things just really shot up — and in many ways, it was a result of much of what we were hoping to do: To create a more dignified experience for people in need of food,” Executive Director Robyn Burns said. “Since then, for us, it’s been trying to continually meet the need from the standpoint of making sure enough food is provided and in stock so when people come, they aren’t worried they had to get here hours in advance, before we open.”
Salem Pantry isn’t the only organization seeing a steady rise in foot traffic. The same trends are being reported at other pantries in the region.
The Open Door’s Gloucester and Ipswich operations have “seen an increase of 28% in requests for food assistance this year,” Executive Director Julie LaFontaine said.
“At the same time, our Mobile Markets — reaching 25 locations throughout Essex County — have expanded to serve a 50% increase in participation,” she said. “Our kitchen now prepares 600 to 800 meals a day for pick up or distribution, up from 200 to 250 a day a year ago.”
At Haven from Hunger in Peabody, “we piloted a night market for those people who couldn’t make it during the day because they work,” said Carolina Trujillo, executive director of the pantry’s parent organization Citizens Inn. “We started it back in August, and it has grown every week.”
With 140 households now taking advantage of the night market, the organization has 505 new households reporting for food assistance this year, up 10% from last year, Trujillo said.
The 140 night market households in particular represents “a population that was underserved,” she said.
But there’s another demographic at local pantries now that Trujillo said deserves special attention, since it challenges society’s assumptions about what makes a pantry client — people who work multiple jobs and still struggle to put food on the table.
“We always hyper-focus on the homeless population, and they’re food insecure for sure. But we also have the caveat that people are working two to three jobs and are still food insecure,” she said. “They don’t qualify for benefits... and they still don’t make ends meet.”
LaFontaine echoed that assessment.
“People are facing record inflationary headwinds from every direction with rent increases, child care costs, the return of student loan payments, and grocery bills,” she said. “Wages have not kept pace with the actual cost-of-living increases, and many people are feeling the impact of a paycheck that might not cover the basics.
“In this economy,” she said, “it doesn’t take a lot to knock a household budget sideways.”
As a result, many pantries are working to expand services if they haven’t already. The Market is a new offering for Salem Pantry, following a newly expanded processing center at Shetland Park and the hire of its first-ever executive director just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Open Door has likewise been busy, in the home stretch on “a multi-year project that doubles our capacity to serve prepared meals and increases our ability to alleviate the impact of hunger in the community through food distribution, nutrition education, and outreach,” LaFontaine said. “With the holidays right around the corner, our new kitchen has been completed just in time to meet the need.”
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.
