GREENFIELD — Standing outside of Foster’s Supermarket Tammy Newell couldn’t believe what she was seeing: She’d tell people about the cause she was collecting food for, people would go into the store, come out with a handful of groceries to help make sure local children don’t go to sleep hungry, and then they’d go back inside and continue on with the errands they came there for.
“I was amazed by how much people wanted to help when we told them,” about Community Action’s 14th annual Belly Bus, Newell said.
A few years ago, Newell was homeless and now she lives in shelter housing in Greenfield as she works toward getting her life in the direction she wants. In the meantime, she’s been helping the community around her, and Friday it was pitching in with the food drive.
The Belly Bus collects food for Franklin County food pantries and programs that work to make sure children don’t go hungry, particularly at this time of the year when federal summer meals programs end and there’s a gap of a couple weeks before the school year starts back up.
At first glance, organizers saw an increase this year in the amount of community support they had received from recent years. A contributing factor people didn’t necessarily hesitate to point to was the homeless issue on the Greenfield Common that community has experienced during the past month or so.
“I think they are raising the issue of poverty and all of that entails — housing, medical care, food,” Executive Director of Franklin County Community Meals Program Andrea Leibson said. “It makes people more aware of what they have and what they don’t and we have to help each other.”
Leibson’s program is one of the recipients of the food from collected by the Belly Bus, and one person who helps her run the program is Newell. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, she heads to the Franklin County Community Meals Program dinner in Greenfield to serve people in town. Lately, numbers have swelled from the typical of 70 or so to somewhere between 100 and 120.
“Lately it seems like more people are reaching out for more help,” said fellow assistant to the community meals program Shane Trudeau, who lives in Greenfield and said he, too, used to be homeless. Newell agreed, noting it’s vital for people to reach out for help when they need it.
Friday’s effort, Newell said was all about stopping the stigma around hunger. “If this is going to contribute and help, then it’s a good thing.”
Rev. Dr. Michael Penn-Strah has worked the past four or five years to coordinate places of worship in the community to raise food for the cause.
“Our commitment is that no child in Franklin County should have to go to bed hungry,” said Penn-Strah, who is member of Second Congregational Church in Greenfield and is a retired minister for the United Church of Christ. “We have the resources. We have the will. We have the creativity. There’s no reason.”
“It’s nice as a community we get together on the Common and we’re supporting local families,” Community Action’s Franklin County Hunger Task Force Co-Chair Justin Costa said.
Costa and Mary McClintock, the other co-chair, have been working diligently on the annual food drive, while also working as social service providers to support the homeless residents on the Common.
Costa said that it is a “unique time as a community,” and based on Thursday night’s emergency City Council meeting that drew two hours of public comment, “The consensus is we’re on board to come together and find long-term solutions.”
“The greatest plus of the people on the Common is they are in the face of the community and there are people who need our help,” he said.
Helping Costa was Richard Perry, who is homeless but said he does not live on the Common.
“Why not give back to the community? This is the Belly Bus. This it to feed the kids. It’s a good thing to do.” Perry said. “It’s actually really good.”
You can reach Joshua Solomon at: jsolomon@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264.