REGIONAL – Our Neighbors’ Table (ONT) is shifting its food distribution hours starting Monday, April 7, adding later times during the week and eliminating Saturday service at a time when the federal government is cutting its allocation by $3 million or 17 percent of its total contribution to Massachusetts food pantries.
More than $3 million worth of food usually sent to Massachusetts food banks was canceled last week by the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA), according to the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB). A total of $2.3 million was scheduled to go to the GBFB, which buys about 105,000 cases of foods.
The cuts will affect more than 600,000 people who receive food from one of Massachusetts’ 600 food pantries.
“For now, we are okay, but there is uncertainty about what the future holds,” said William Courtney, spokesperson for ONT, a food bank served by the GBFB.
The GBFB is the primary food source for frontline food providers across eastern Massachusetts, but Courtney said the federal food programs help reduce food insecurity in several ways, including the SNAP (food stamps) and paying farmers to produce for food banks.
The SNAP programs appear to be funded through September, the end of this fiscal year, Courtney said. But other programs, including a large grant to the Nourishing the North Shore, are being cut.
The cuts come at a time when the need for donated food is rising as the economy slows. ONT is registering 15 to 20 new households per week, Courtney said.
Founded in 1992 in the parish hall of an Amesbury church, ONT operates free grocery markets in Salisbury at 114 Bridge Rd. and Amesbury at 194 Main St., together serving more than 1,700 residents each week.
“I am not going to worry, as that does no good,” said Jane Merrow, who heads the First Parish Newbury Food Bank, which shares in the donated food with ONT and GBFB.
“We will continue to try and be prepared for what happens next, basically taking things a day at a time. We live in an extremely generous community and have already had people dropping off donations in preparation for what comes next. As always, we will do the very best we can to help folks in our service area who are food insecure,” Merrow said.
First Parish continues to distribute food to its clients on Fridays in its building behind the church.
Starting Monday, ONT’s new hours are:
- Salisbury Market: Mondays, noon to 5 p.m., and Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Amesbury Market: Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Our Neighbors’ Table Markets are open to residents of Amesbury, Boxford, Byfield, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, South Hampton, NH and West Newbury.
“Our market team carefully surveyed our Saturday shoppers over several weeks to ensure there will be no interruption to services for any of our guests,” said Will Courtney, ONT’s director of communications. “The shift allows us to make the most of our limited staff time during the week while continuing to meet the growing demand for our grocery programs across the region.”
last June, after we opened the Salisbury market, ONT expanded service from three days per week to five — two days in Salisbury, three in Amesbury.
“We always planned to re-evaluate once we saw how usage balanced out between the markets. As people have adjusted to the Salisbury availability, it has reduced the volume in Amesbury, the slowest day being Saturday when we were open just four hours,” Courtney said.
“The change allows us to take the two or three staff members that would typically work on that Saturday and use those hours when we’re busiest during the week. With potential threats to federal funding for SNAP and food banks, we want to be as efficient as we can and make the best use of our resources.”
Saturdays have been on the schedule since ONT re-opened after the COVID pandemic. To accommodate people who work during the week, ONT will now be open until 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays.
Every year, one in three Massachusetts’ residents experiences food insecurity.
“For us, we either have to raise the money to replace the product, or we have to encourage our state legislature to increase the state commodity program by that amount of money,” GBFB president and CEO Catherine D’Amato said.
Massachusetts food banks are not alone – the USDA cuts are happening in every state as part of the Trump administration’s plan to reduce federal spending.
ONT’s grocery program also provides curbside service and deliveries for qualified guests on Wednesdays and supports integrated grocery markets at councils on aging in Salisbury, Merrimac and Groveland, as well as Heritage Towers in Amesbury.
Learn more at ourneighborstable.org/get-food or call 978-388-1907.
