Impact

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Impact

Our Neighbors’ Table has turned traditional food assistance on its head by providing flexible, personalized programs. We’ve eliminated the traditional approach of strict schedules, cumbersome qualification and limited food selection by offering dignified experiences and access to fresh, wholesome food when and where people throughout northeastern Essex County need it.

Our community invests in our model and it is our responsibility to track and report back to the community our effectiveness in achieving regional food security. We utilize a community-wide strategic planning process to prioritize and guide our work and utilize our annual reports to report our progress.

In 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?

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.
Awareness and capacity to respond to food insecurity are widespread across sectors, demographics and geography.
The entire community actively participates through investments of time and money.
The community culture nurtures residents’ dignity and allows people to access help without judgement.

ONT's 2017-20 Strategic Plan: A Path to Food Security outlines the first steps to creating a food secure region. Thanks to a sustaining investment from the Cummings Foundation, a food secure region by 2029 is possible.