“One of the most gratifying things you can experience is giving back to the community that raised you.” – Aly Tran, Food For Free Logistics Manager
Hello, my name is Aly Tran, and I’ve been the Logistics Manager at Food For Free for just about five weeks now. In my short time here, I’ve already been blown away by the potential for community impact that this role affords me.
Growing up in Dorchester, my childhood wasn’t always easy. My family were recipients of food stamps/EBT (what is now called SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), economic assistance and Section 8 housing. As Vietnamese immigrants, my five siblings and I were aware of the financial struggles our parents endured to give us the amazing childhood that we were able to have.
Both of my parents were hard workers. I remember vividly how my mom would schedule the work hours for her 7am – 5pm bakery jobs just so that she could drive us to and from school every day, no matter the inconvenience it put on her. My dad worked in construction, and my siblings and I had a deep respect and admiration for how hard our parents worked to provide for us.
While both my parents instilled in me the importance of a strong work ethic, it was my mom’s love and perseverance that formed me into the person I am today. My mom was able to raise 6 kids while working a full time job, which usually involved working overtime hours each week. She also battled cancer for 13 years throughout all of that before our family lost her.
Despite the fact that my family received government assistance throughout my childhood, I didn’t really sense my food insecurity until after losing my mother. The loss heavily impacted my father, who coped with his grief by distancing himself from us kids. My mom was the one who had always cooked family meals, and suddenly I was forced to get used to preparing my own meals at the age of 15.
Thankfully, my schools were able to fill in the gaps where government help and my family could not. My high school, Boston College High School, gave me free breakfast and lunch each school day, so all I really had to find was dinner. I was fortunate enough to have attended The Epiphany School in Dorchester, which is a private middle school that offers financial aid and personal support to each student. Epiphany offered a support program that allowed graduates to come in after school hours to sit and enjoy a meal with the matriculated students. This was huge for me. I can’t remember how many times I’ve shown up at Epiphany just looking for a meal and/or some type of assistance, and the school was always there for me.
After graduating from BC High, my early adult life saw me returning to Epiphany, where I worked as an administrative assistant and basketball coach until I was 21. While there, I was constantly in the gym and on the basketball courts. One day, someone there told me about a professional basketball tryout for Vietnamese-Americans in Los Angeles, CA for the Vietnam National team. I tried out and was offered a chance to go to Vietnam as part of the national team for 2 years.
Even after my travels, I found my way back to Epiphany again, this time as the Athletic Director. I took on this role for 3 years before taking a step back to start my family after meeting my partner, Cindy, who later gave birth to our amazing daughter, Alyssa. After having my family, I returned to work as a freight operations supervisor for a delivery company in Canton, MA, and have been in the trucking industry since then.
What made me really want to join Food For Free is the mission and the staff. Food For Free’s mission is to improve access to healthy food through establishing innovative programming and partnerships to overcome barriers and strengthen the community food system. From my first day as Logistics Manager, it was so clear to me that everyone on the team knew the mission and wanted to do their part to give back to the community. When you come to our Somerville Packing & Distribution Center and look around, you can almost see a sense of joy and pride for the work being done here. Experiencing that helped me know that I had found the right place.
Just as at other key points in my life, I have turned back to Epiphany here in my role at Food For Free. Since Epiphany provides such excellent support to their current and past students, and Food For Free fights hunger in the community (in one way through partnerships with schools), forming a partnership between the two organizations just made sense to me.
The Epiphany School’s graduate support program sees roughly 20-50 high school students come through their doors each day to do homework, exercise, and participate in afterschool programs. I know the massive impact that this support can have on an adolescent firsthand – I graduated from Epiphany 15 years ago, and I am one of the graduates who knew what it was like to show up somewhere hungry and too embarrassed or shy to ask for food.
I want to be the bridge to fill this void in my community. Although I am well-removed from Epiphany now and it’s been over 5 years since I’ve worked there, I still think about my “second home” everyday and ways that I can contribute to this community that has helped me so much.
Just a couple of weeks into my job here, I was able to create a partnership between Food For Free and The Epiphany School through our Heat-n-Eats program, which provides nutritionally-balanced microwaveable meals to people faced with food insecurity. Today, we are able to provide over 60 meals to individuals in the Epiphany family each week. I am so grateful for the opportunity to give back to the community that raised me, and am excited to see what I do next here at Food For Free.
Thank you, Aly, for sharing your powerful impact story, and welcome to the Food For Free team!
