Blog post via Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition
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DISTRIBUTOR: MONADNOCK
MOBILE FOOD PANTRY,
KATE LEVERSEE, PANTRY MANAGER,
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
In Cheshire County, 9.5 percent of all residents, and 12.7 percent of children, were food insecure in 2019, according to the most recent data from Feeding America, a national food access organization. Both rates are higher than the state’s average in 2019 of 8.8 percent, and 10.8 percent among kids. The need to adequately address hunger "where it lives" was even more palpable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A MOBILE FOOD PANTRY IS BORN.
Roe-Ann Tasoulas, MFCC director, set up a meeting with Sarah Harpster and Phoebe Bray at Brewbakers on a chilly winter day in 2020 to discuss next steps in getting a mobile food pantry up and running in our region. At the time, Bray was Executive Director of The Community Kitchen (TCK) while Harpster was settling into her new role as Policy Advocacy coordinator.
During the conversation, Bray expressed there was an overwhelming interest in the project both from within the organization and from the outside, and that a feasibility study was needed to foster even more "buy-in" from possible funders. In late 2020, Tasoulas procured funding from the You Have Our Trust foundation, and a coordinator was hired to implement the study.
Simultaneously, MFCC's Food Access Alliance (Alliance) was awarded a grant from the NH Children's Health Foundation to implement a comprehensive analysis of hunger in the Monadnock Region. Implemented by the SW Region Planning Commission, the "2021 Monadnock Food Access Analysis" identified the most common causes of hunger in our region: poverty and issues with transportation. A subsequent Food Access Plan identified a number of potential solutions including the estatblishment of a mobile food pantry run by The Community Kitchen.
THE MONADNOCK MOBILE FOOD PANTRY IS BORN.
Led by Harpster who assumed the reins of TCK's Executive Director after Bray's retirement in early 2022, planning for the Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry (mobile pantry) included convening an Alliance-led "backbone" team, procuring funding to administer the pantry, and hiring a new pantry manager. Kate Leversee, TCK's pantry manager "hit the ground running" not only to oversee TCK's pantry program but also the mobile pantry rollout. With much enthusiasm, Leversee launched its first "pop-up" event in June 2022 in Winchester. Four more similar events followed over the summer in Gilsum, Antrim, a second in Winchester, and Fitzwilliam. The Humane Society, SW Community Services, and other organizations offered resources and tools to participants, including free pet food for those who needed it.
Leversee is working with the Alliance backbone team to organize and plan 10-12 mobile food distribution sites for the 2023 season. In order to build the volunteer capacity at each site, Leversee will convene a gathering of mobile pantry volunteers from throughout the region in March to inform future mobile pantry events and foster buy-in from communities.
If you are interested in volunteering to help with the Monadnock Mobile Food Pantry this summer, please email, coordinator@mfccoalition.org.
If you are interested in helping to get local food from Monadnock farms onto the mobile pantry, please give to MFCC's Locals' Local Fund, here. And Round UP your purchases in March at the Monadnock Food Coop for the Locals' Local Fund!
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