GREENFIELD – While National Hunger Action Month ended with September, the Franklin County Hunger Task Force is encouraging area residents to continue taking action with a list of 53 ways to help change the story about hunger and increase food security in the local community.
“For decades, the focus of efforts to end hunger in the United States has been on feeding the immediate need of people who are hungry today,” reads the list of ways to take action from the Franklin County Hunger Task Force. “That’s what has built the system of food banks, food pantries, and community meals as well as programs like SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps). Feeding the immediate need is crucial, but until we address the root causes of poverty and hunger, we won’t be able to ‘shorten the line’ of people at those food pantries and meal programs who are food insecure.”
To shorten the line, the task force has created a list of 53 ways to take action, which also includes links to various online resources. The list suggests different ways to learn about local hunger, and encourages action addressing root causes of poverty and hunger — including access to transportation, affordable child care, affordable healthcare, and affordable housing. Other strategies address criminal justice reform, financial wellness and ways to take political action.
“Hunger doesn’t come out of nowhere,” Franklin County Hunger Task Force Co-Chair Mary McClintock said. “It is caused by a wide range of issues, including the high cost of transportation, housing and medical care. Together, we can learn about those root causes and take action to change them.”
Beyond connecting to informational resources, the task force encourages residents to volunteer at their local food pantries or meal programs or reach out to neighbors who may be in need of a ride to the grocery store or a grocery delivery because they don’t have transportation of their own.
The Franklin County Hunger Task Force also provides strategies for increasing awareness of food access resources, such as free food pantries, income-accessible CSA farm shares, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Healthy Incentive Program (HIP) locations.
The Franklin County Hunger Task Force earlier this month, from Sept. 17 through Sept. 30, hosted a Hunger Action Walking Trail along Main Street in Greenfield to recognize National Hunger Action Month. Eight local businesses participated, placing information posters in their windows sharing information on different aspects of hunger and ways to take action. According to Feeding America, one in three Franklin County households with children receives SNAP benefits and over 8 percent of children in the county experience hunger.
Demand at local meal sites has been increasing significantly in recent weeks. The Franklin County Community Meals Program recently expanded with a new meal site in Northfield, and continues to services three other sites in Greenfield, Turners Falls and Orange.
The Stone Soup Cafe in Greenfield has also been adjusting to meet the increase of people seeking food assistance from both local and national influences.
“Since the pandemic unemployment ended, and since they started clearing unhoused camps in Northampton, we have seen a huge increase,” said Stone Soup Cafe Executive Director Kirsten Levitt. “We’re talking 20 households more, at least.”
Levitt said the cafe typically prepares to serve beyond what is pre-ordered by families and individuals each week. However, in the first two weeks after Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) ended Sept. 4, Levitt said they actually ran out of food because the sudden increase was so much greater than anticipated.
“The first week we did 110 meals more than were ordered, and the second week was 140 meals more,” Levitt said. “This week we were prepared but the numbers still went up.… Everybody got fed, but those at the very end may not have gotten the entire offering from the menu.”
She said the increase was similar to an “explosion of need” that occurred when the economic shutdown and shelter-in-place orders began in Spring 2020. By November 2020 the cafe was serving over 500 meals a week. These numbers decreased to 350 or 300 after the shelter in place order was lifted and vaccines began to be distributed.
“Now we’re back to 400-plus,” Levitt said. “It speaks to the need, and to the fact that when you take the training wheels off the bike too soon the person falls over and get’s banged up… I unabashedly think we should not have taken the financial assistance away.”
As a community, McClintock said, “we can help make sure our neighbors have enough to eat now and in the future” and “we can support the local food pantries and meal programs that feed people today, and work to address the reasons why people are hungry today.”
For more information about the Franklin County Hunger Task Force, email McClintock at fcrn@communityaction.us, call 413-376-1108 or visit the task force’s Facebook page.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.
53 Ways Handout 6-21-2021 by Zachary DeLuca on Scribd