The More Than a Meal Campaign is funding the build-out and equipping of our new 26,000-square-foot facility, establishing The Salem Pantry as the regional hub for food access on the North Shore. This space will enable us to receive, store, and distribute larger quantities of shelf-stable, refrigerated, and frozen food, more than doubling the amount reaching our partners and neighbors across the region.

The More than a Meal Campaign is making healthy food more accessible by adding a second free Market, located at our new warehouse facility, that’s easily reached by public transportation. This campaign will also fund a second Mobile Pantry truck, which will reach significantly more high-need neighborhoods each month with customizable offerings.

Our volunteers and staff are the heartbeat of the Salem Pantry. The More Than a Meal Campaign is investing in the people who make this work possible. We are prioritizing local employment, expanding our volunteer network and impacts, and growing our internship opportunities.

A new state-of-the-art refrigerated truck funded by the More Than a Meal Campaign will make it possible to expand procurement and distribution of perishables, increasing our food recovery, reducing waste, and getting healthy food to people who really need it.

The More Than a Meal campaign includes growing a Safety Net Fund that will allow The Salem Pantry and the region to be best prepared to respond to the next food access crisis. We learned through the Covid pandemic and the 2025 SNAP defunding crisis that preparation and rapid response are both critically important. The ongoing SNAP cuts, alongside very high costs of living, are already creating an escalating need.