Greater Boston Food Bank

I eat amazing food, and I can’t remember the last time I truly went hungry. I guess that’s why the brand-new 117,000-square-foot building for the Greater Boston Food Bank stills my soul. I am lucky to not be one of the estimated 321,500 people going hungry in Eastern Massachusetts. Every week, the Food Bank serves 83,000 of them. Estimates are that “need” is up 11% this year, at some agencies as much as 30%–40%. Part of the Food Bank’s mantra is “Everybody has a role in ending hunger.” So, I wonder, what’s mine?

When Kip Tiernan, founder of Rosie’s Place, started the Greater Boston Food Bank in 1981, she recalled how her grandmother used to feed the hungry: she let them know she had an open soup kitchen by chalking an “X” in a circle on the sidewalk in front of her house. Almost 30 years later, the Greater Boston Food Bank operates out of the former Boston incinerator, rehabbed as a certified-green warehouse building where food is delivered, re-packed, and moved into the hunger pipeline. Staff and volunteers work daily shifts on an unbelievably sophisticated shipping system that distributes canned, cooked, and fresh food to 600 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters all over Eastern Massachusetts. It is supported by funds from the state of Massachusetts, the federal government, and individual donors, and by food from direct purchases, food drives, donations from wholesalers, and the Second Helping program, which deposits unused food from local restaurants in the Bank.

But what can we well-fed foodies do? You can give money, in small or large donations. There is no endowment for the Greater Boston Food Bank, so the $7 to $8 million in operating costs has to be raised each year. And though the rehab cost $35 million to complete, only $26 million has been raised so far, and the fundraising for the capital grant continues. Every bit counts: besides big corporate donors, more than 28,000 people send checks for less than $50. You can also give your time. Volunteers save the Food Bank more than $600,000 in annual labor costs. You can visit the website to sign up for a shift as an individual or group, and if your work schedule gets in the way, go on a Saturday or pick one of the late shifts on Wednesday evenings. And by the way, January is the major processing month, as all the food from the holiday drives comes in and must be sorted and stocked. Another option? Give food. Check the site for needed items (the need for shelf-stable proteins like tuna and peanut butter is always high), and organize a food drive. I don’t feel guilty about never being hungry. But I do feel responsible for helping ensure that others don’t have to be either.

For more information about the new Greater Boston Food Bank, visit gbfb.org.