Every day we confront the challenge that the growing need for food within our communities exceeds the current resources available. Not only here but throughout the state, the country, and beyond. At the same time, every day we have the pleasure of working with incredible partners to identify creative solutions and new collaborations to stretch the resources that we do have to serve more and more people. Over this past week, and during the coming week, with the support of some amazing organizations, we are implementing new components to our delivery program that will help us keep up with the growing demand and ensure people have access to the food they need.

We spoke with our partners at East End House, Margaret Fuller House, and Cambridge Community Center, all of whom are currently running food pantries and receiving food from Food For Free. They each told us that they have the capacity to serve more people and that they want to support our efforts to protect the COVID-19 Grocery Delivery program from growing beyond our capacity. We were able to share that information, including locations and hours of operation, with the Cambridge Community Food Line (617-349-9155). They will now be able to offer callers these additional resources and steer people to the solution that makes the most sense for them. This will allow us to hold space on our list for the elderly, COVID-19-positve individuals, and others who cannot physically leave their homes.

Additionally, we are partnering with the City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee to expand our services to include weekly grocery store gift cards. These gift cards will replace home delivery for, initially, 400 of the households we currently serve. Households with members who cannot leave home due to age, illness or disability will continue to receive grocery deliveries.

To begin, we have identified the households closest in distance to the Market Basket in Somerville, not to exceed 1.5 miles, and are providing them with a weekly gift card of $30. This will offer them more choice in their food selection and allow them to secure highly perishable items such as milk, cheese, or eggs, which are not currently included in our program. If this is successful, we will likely expand it over time.

Finally, Vice Mayor and Food For Free staff member, Alanna Mallon, in partnership with the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee, will be reaching out to all of the households on our list to help eligible people enroll to receive SNAP and P-EBT benefits, offering yet another option for community members to access food.

To-date, we have kept up with the demand. We added a sixth delivery of food to our packing center this week and made deliveries to 1928 homes–160 more than the prior week. While we continue to look for ways to expand these deliveries, we are concerned that this stop-gap measure is not the best way to feed our community long-term. Furthermore, the toll this rapid expansion is taking on our staff and resources is significant. We want to get ahead of the growth because we are committed to making sure folks who simply cannot leave their house will still receive food. The solutions above will help do just that.

While our home delivery program is specifically for Cambridge residents, we continue to find ways to reach those in the other communities we serve. Starting next week, we will be allocating $100,000 across 4 different communities through May and June to supplement their food supplies. The Chelsea Salvation Army will be getting about $3,000 per week of shelf-stable foods to add to their existing supplies. Healthy Waltham will use the funds to increase the amount of produce and meat products they can offer their clients. We are reaching out to two other communities to confirm this will be an effective solution for them and will announce each community as we finalize agreements.

Every day we confront the challenge that the growing need for food within our communities exceeds the current resources available. But everyday we see more people and organizations coming together to find ways to overcome these challenges.

We know are not in this alone and we are grateful for the ongoing support of city government, non-profits, business, volunteers and all of you.