By: Meaghan Avery, Senior Program Director-Healthy Living at Old Colony YMCA.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Old Colony YMCA worked to address the immediate need for emergency food support. In October 2020, we distributed 504 food boxes per weekend via our drive-thru to members of our community in under 30 minutes, three Saturdays in a row through the Farmers to Families Program. Boxes weighed about 28 pounds and contained meat, cheese, milk, fresh produce, and other staple food items. As we developed our strategic plans for the upcoming year, it was evident that addressing the need for food support in the community needed to remain a priority. The need has only grown since the start of the pandemic. Currently, 1.8 million Massachusetts residents identify as being food insecure. This is 1 in 3. (Greater Boston Food Bank).
Within the OCY service area, there are food pantries; however, the need is so great, and often there are barriers to accessing pantries. OCY opened the Y Community Market to supplement resources available in the community in a setting with expanded hours. Our facilities are open 5 am – 10 pm, 7 days a week. Although we encourage folks to visit Monday through Friday 9 am – 4pm, we are always willing to accommodate someone if they stop by outside the hours offered. The Y Community Market also eliminates the barriers of proof of residency and income verification. Oftentimes, these factors can make a person ineligible to benefit from local pantries. Although we ask these questions upon intake, it is only for data purposes and no one will be turned away.
Beyond the data, we have connected daily with people in our communities whose lives were upended by the pandemic and beyond as the cost of groceries continues to rise. A family with 3 kids at home and an expectant mother who was too high risk to continue her job in a healthcare setting; countless older adults living on their own who could no longer afford their groceries based off of their fixed incomes; a young adult trying to get back on his feet after experiencing homelessness; a mother of two who during this all lost her husband and was no longer able to make ends meet; a family with a sick child who did not have to choose between food or medications. We receive calls and visits daily and often for people in critical need who will have no food in the fridge that day. Our response is immediate.
The Y Community Market was opened in June of 2021, at the Old Colony YMCA in Stoughton. As a part of a partnership with the Greater Boston Food Bank, we receive 8,000 pounds of food per month. This is a variety of shelf-stable items, frozen meat, dairy products, and small amounts of fresh produce.
Participants can choose their weekly pickups either in prepacked variety bags or they can opt into our Shopper’s Choice program. This allows participants to choose the items that they want to see in their order based on their family’s preferences. On a weekly basis, the Y Community Market distributes food to around 80 families. This number continues to grow each week. If you or someone you know is interested in the Y Community Market please register as a shopper at yourmarket.force.com or reach out to Meaghan Avery at mavery@oldcolonyymca.org or 781-34132016 x231.
Community Voices for Health 