ONT Leading the Way

With decades of experience and expertise in the strategic and operational expansion of food access, Our Neighbors’ Table is uniquely positioned to lead a regional effort to expand access for communities across the Lower Merrimack Valley by increasing storage capacity and distribution to food providers on the front lines.
ONT’s leadership is committing its staff, operational capacity and financial resources to work on behalf of:
  • Infrastructure – ONT will own, construct and operate the Seacoast Regional Food Hub on behalf of all food providers operating in the Lower Merrimack Valley
  • Strategy – ONT convenes and facilitates the joint strategic planning and implementation of the Seacoast Food Providers.
  • Accountability – Using its own Stable Table™ model for community-level food security, ONT tracks and reports on the progress on our collective goal of universal food access across the region.

Our Story

Founded in 1992 to provide a weekly hot meal and companionship for neighbors in need, Our Neighbors' Table now serves 12 communities in Northern Essex County. 
Currently ONT operates a free market and warehouse at the Jardis-Taylor Center on Main Street in Amesbury, supports distribution and integrated markets in its service area, and still operates a weekly Community Meal every Wednesday.

Building a Food Secure Region

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n 2018, Our Neighbors’ Table declared the City of Amesbury our first food-secure community and have laid the groundwork to achieve food security across the 12 communities we serve by 2029. What does it mean for a region to be food secure?
  1. Food is available to every person through an infrastructure that reflects the unique needs and challenges of people who are food insecure, provides both the quantity and quality of food needed to support healthy living, and is sustainable through good times and bad.
  2. Awareness and capacity to respond to food insecurity are widespread across sectors, demographics and geography.
  3. The entire community actively participates through investments of time and money.
  4. The community culture nurtures residents’ dignity and allows people to access help without judgement.​

Creating People-Centric Models

ONT’s free grocery market, the first of its kind in the east and second in the nation, now serves as an industry best practice. Our model includes the market space as well as critical infrastructure to ensure consistent supply, community responsiveness and flexibility in a crisis like COVID-19. 
ONT has developed a unique family screening program in partnership with the region’s largest pediatric practice to identify and refer families facing food insecurity. This model screens more than 16,000 children across the Lower Merrimack Valley and has inspired broader community training and data tracking for municipalities and school districts.

Scaling Effective Strategies

Our 10-year goal is to create community-level, universal food access across the Lower Merrimack Valley, and ultimately create environment with increased food security and less fear of food insecurity for every household.
ONT’s Stable Table model (see graphic above) allows us to replicate community-level food security across 12 cities and towns.
We have replicated our grocery store at two other locations with another one coming in 2023. Our training and referral practices have been replicated across school districts and municipalities.
Using our proven strategies and with your help, we can build universal food access for all by 2029.

Achieving Results

ONT reports on its progress annually and has recently developed data tracking to measure changes in household food security.
A community is considered food secure when food is universally available and accessible to all, regardless of ability to afford it. Data shows Amesbury is food secure based on:
  • A comparison of need versus the number of residents being served by ONT and other partners.
  • A bi-annual Council on Aging assessment that found <1% of seniors identified food access as a concern.
Amesbury’s food safety net also withstood the 2020 crisis:
  • In July 2020, <6% of families with children reported food access as a concern
  • The survey allowed ONT to target outreach/programs to those who did.