​By Lyndsey Haight, Executive Director, Our Neighbors' Table
“I’ve done everything I can to not have to come here. I’m sorry. I will only take a few things and hopefully won’t have to come too often.” These are the words that we hear almost universally from people coming to get food at Our Neighbors’ Table for the first time. The sacrifices guests make before they walk into our doors for the first time - from cutting out fresh fruits and vegetables, to putting groceries on credit cards, skipping prescription refills in order to buy groceries, or simply not eating for days on end so their children can eat – are substantial. Yet, walking through the door to ask for help is never easy.
 
If you’ve been to an ONT volunteer orientation, you’ve heard the stories; if you’ve volunteered at ONT, you’ve witnessed the guilt, shame and fear first-hand. You also understand it is our number one goal to make every single person feel welcomed and to lift the fear and feelings that may prevent them from coming back.  
 
ONT’s work was founded on the values of Service with Dignity, Community and Respect. Our founders welcomed their neighbors to break bread together so no one went hungry, but more importantly to ensure no one felt they had to go it alone. For 28 years, ONT has been powered by helpers doing what they can, sharing what they have, and lifting each other up along the way, resulting in, perhaps, the first food-secure city in the nation. As they say, rising tides raise all ships. Even after nearly three decades, the perseverance of these values takes work. In 2011, we took the time to articulate them, make them part of our long-term strategies. In 2015, we began and continue training all of our staff and volunteers – new and tenured – to put these values into action. Every day, we ask ourselves if our decisions are aligned with these values and we expect our guests, our community to call us out if we go astray.
 
I love to meet new people and welcome them into our mission. Giving tours and sharing our work is a favorite part of my job. I’ve had the opportunity to sit with new guests and donors alike. And there is a striking difference in the conversations. While just about every guest tries to qualify their request for help, almost every single tour includes the questions: “How do you make sure people really need the help? Do they have to qualify?” In the course of 20 years, I have come to see there are various experiences that compel people to ask this question. Usually, those experiences are 3rd party, stories told, of someone taking advantage of the system. The person in line at the grocery store using food stamps to buy liquor. The breeding of dependency if we let people collect welfare. Maybe they are first-hand: ‘I know Mr. So-and-So comes to your dinner every week but he has money to buy his own food’. There are lots of different perceptions about people who ask for help. It has also been my experience that one shift at ONT getting to know your neighbors who shop here for food quickly replaces those perceptions with relationships, connectedness and, alas, a sense of community. I understand all this. The unknown. A knowledge vacuum filled in with information that may or may not be based in real life, but it fills a void until something else can.
 
But there is something else inherent in the questions about qualifying people to receive help. This question is rooted in the assumption that the help is mine to decide whether or not to share; that I have the power and authority – the right – to decide whether or not someone is worthy to receive food. This power dynamic is inevitable in every charitable food system dependent on the goodwill of a few. At the very core of Our Neighbors’ Table is the belief and practice that we are all deserving; that none of us is more or less deserving to receive help; and none of us is more or less deserving to control when and where help is given. The community invests its time and treasure in our mission because we all agree that food needs to be available to everyone and the community entrusts us to do just that. While many give to our mission under charitable motives, those who sustain our work know we are much more than a charitable food assistance organization; we strive toward universal food security, toward a just food system that serves us all. This can only be achieved when those of us who hold power over resources recognize that power and relinquish it and allow others to gain their own access.
 
True, we carry the burden of only having resources to serve 12 communities when we know our neighboring cities and towns could also use the help. We truly struggle with this every day we turn someone away. But, we have found a way to ensure that our region’s resources are distributed and available universally and our work every day is to achieve that to the best of our ability.
 
In the last month, we have all heard (and maybe even shouted) the cries for an end to racism and the systemic racism that permeates every aspect of American life. Many are organizing or continue their work centuries in the making, many others may be reflecting at home wondering what role might you have played, or what role you can play now.  If you’re reading this, and wondering what you can do, I offer what we, at ONT, have come to know and strive to practice every day as it comes to serving our mission

1. Listening and witnessing firsthand sheds light that is often prevented by distance.
2. Breaking bread together ensures everyone gets to eat and no one has to go it alone.
3. Sharing power rarely, if ever, hurts, but it always helps.
4. The mere fact that you have the choice to consider these ideas means you’re holding a power that others don’t. 

Our Neighbors’ Table’s grocery programs remain open in the curbside pick-up. Our priority is and will continue to be ensuring people have consistent, reliable access to food as safely as possible.

ONT shifted to an entirely curbside model for grocery distribution on March 2020 and will remain operating in the curbside pick-up model for the foreseeable future. Guests can pre-order groceries online and schedule the time to pick-up. If you cannot order online, please call 978-388-1907 to place your order. Groceries will be delivered directly to your car during your scheduled pick-up time. If you cannot leave your house, please have someone pick up for you. If you need delivery, please call 978-388-1907.

Ordering is for next day pick-up. We're sorry but we cannot process same-day pick-ups. Please place your order by 3:00pm the day before you want to pick it up. New  guests must fill out a guest registration form before ordering and allow 24 hours for processing.

Curbside pick-up will be available at the following locations. 
Amesbury Market - Our Neighbors' Table, 194 Main Street​

• Wednesdays: 10:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 4:00pm 
• Thursdays: 12:00pm - 3:00pm and 4:00pm - 6:00pm
• Fridays: 9:00am - 12:00pm and 1:00pm - 3:00pm
• Saturdays: 9:00am - 1:00pm

​Newburyport Market - Hope Community Church, 11 Hale Street

• Thursdays 10:00am - 12:00pm

Wednesday Meal - Main Street Congregational Church, 145 Main Street, Amesbury

• Hot to-go meals and family size meals are availbe for takeout every Wednedsay from 4pm - 6pm. Guests will come to the back entrance to receive the hot meals. If you are ill, please send someone to pick up your meal for you. If there isn't anyone available to pick up a meal for you, please call 978-388-1907 to make arrangements for food.

In addition to ONT's programs, we are maintaining an updated list of food resources across the region. You can view this list online or download a copy to your computer. Remember to check back regularly as things continue to change.

To do our part to minimize risk of infection and to allay fears of exposure in our community, ONT is taking the following steps:

• Communication: any changes in programs, policies or protocols will be communicated through our social media, email and website platforms
• Food access: Access to food when and where people need it remains our top priority. We are developing alternate distribution methods to assist people who are too ill to come to ONT or who are particularly vulnerable to the flu or Covid-19. Groceries will be distributed curbside to vehicles; Wednesday Meals are available for take-out at the back church entrance. Additional protocols will roll out as needed. In the meantime, if you cannot come to us, please call our office 978-388-1907 to speak to a member of our program team to make arrangements.
• Protect yourself and others: If you are feeling ill or have recently come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or is under investigation regardless of how minor your symptoms, we ask you to stay home. We make this request of staff, volunteers and guests. If you have recently come in contact with anyone who is displaying symptoms of or has been diagnosed with COVID-19, please do not come to ONT. If you are in need of food and are ill or have been exposed to the virus, please call us at 978-388-1907 to to make arrangements.
• Routine Screening/Cleaning: ONT is taking extra steps to screen all volunteers, staff and visitors. The ONT office is closed to outside visitors. Everyone on ONT premises will be screened for previous exposure and subject to hygiene and social distancing protocols. Handwashing continues to be an important part of maintaining a healthy environment. Extra washing, hand sanitizers, and surface cleaning will be routinely administered in all ONT environments.
• Crowd Control: We have slimmed down our volunteer shifts to the least amount of people possible in the building volunteer shifts will be minimized; staff and volunteers will be recruited in teams for specific “home bases” and timeframes to minimize potential spreading from one population to another.

 ​How can you help?

• Please help us spread this information so that people know how to access food.
• Please do NOT come to our office, market or other program locations unless you are a scheduled volunteer. Please do not come to drop off a donation or inquire about helping. You can reach us via phone or email: Lesley@ourneighborstable.org
• Help your neighbors: If you know of someone who is afraid, too ill, or too vulnerable to come out and get food, offer to come and get food for them or tell them to call us. We don’t want anyone going without.
• Volunteering: If you are in our volunteer system, be on the lookout for calls to action as we adapt our programming to developing needs. If you have never volunteered with ONT before, we appreciate your desire to help. We are now recruiting for "Team B" in case any currently scheduled volunteers become ill. If you would like to serve on "Team B," please email or call Melanie at 978-388-1907 x21. 
• Donations: With schools and community meals closing, ONT’s programs will be a critical resource for families and elders, in particular. Please consider a monetary donation to help us ramp up our programs. Financial donations allow us the flexibility to purchase whatever needs may arise in the coming weeks as our programs adapt to public health guidelines.  Donations can be made online at ourneighborstable.org/donate.
• Food donations: At the direction of the local departments of public health, we are not currently accepting donations of food from the general public. However, if you would like to donate personal care items (toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, soap), those items are needed and can be most easily shipped to our warehouse via online purchasing. If you operate a commercial kitchen or retail outlet that has perishable foods that you need to get rid of, please call us as we may be able to redistribute those items through our programs.

Contact: 978-388-1907
Lyndsey Haight, Executive Director, x11
Lori Townsend, Program Director, x12

​Dear friend,
None of us could have dreamed of the reality we all face today. Without notice, our schools had to close, local businesses had to be shuttered, and life seemed to turn completely upside down.

In the last 2 weeks, I've spoken to longtime ONT volunteers who are afraid to leave their homes; a mother who, along with her husband, has just lost her job and is worried about keeping it together for their 2 children; a woman who was supposed to start her job as a census worker and now has no income to pay her rent; a retired veteran who lives alone, with no children, who is glad he can come to ONT, even if it's just pulling up in his car, to see some friendly faces.

These conversations remind me that Our Neighbors' Table is more than just the food on our shelves, ONT has always been a source of community and connectedness. Something we are all craving right now. My late grandmother always had a fondness for lighthouses. In these stormy times, I want you to know ONT is here to be a beacon of hope and light. All of our work over the last 28 years has prepared us to be a lighthouse for our community.
​And now, I need to ask everyone who can, to pitch in. If you can give $10, give $10. If you can give $1,000 or more, now is the time. Join our Breakfast Club to make your donation in monthly installments.

Our priority is and will continue to be ensuring people have consistent, reliable access to food, and, as always, to do it with kindness. To do this we have had to completely change our program operations to keep our guests healthy and safe. After spending 4 years growing our markets, this week we had to close their doors and shift to an exclusively curbside model with very little preparation time.

Here’s a glimpse of what that change has meant in 1 week:

• Launching in 7 days an online ordering software that usually takes 8 weeks
• Ordering 5,000 paper bags to safely package the food being loaded into guests’ cars
• Hunting down and purchasing extra sanitizer and cleaning products to keep our guests, staff and volunteers safe
• Purchasing 2 new floor scales to more efficiently weigh the thousands of pounds of food going out
• Fueling up our trucks for food rescue as restaurants & businesses closed
• Working long hours and overtime to build new programs with less people power

These last two weeks were hard, but now the real work begins. Now we will be serving a surge of new neighbors who face economic uncertainty in the coming weeks and months. In addition to the 600 households we were already serving each week, we've already registered 65 new households (with nearly 200 mouths to feed) just since March 16.

Our neighbors are counting on ONT when they have nowhere else to turn. Are you in a position to help? Every dollar matters, please give what you can.

Be well and take care,
 Lyndsey Haight
Executive Director