​You probably know the acronym PTO, short for Paid Time Off, but have you ever heard of VTO—Volunteer Time Off? David Berlind says “I was a chronic procrastinator about volunteering, I always had an excuse. But then my company said take 56 hours a year and go work for someone else. So, I didn’t have any excuses anymore.”

David came to ONT volunteer orientation in January 2019, and quickly got involved doing restocking in the market on Wednesdays and food donation pickups on Thursdays. David logged his volunteer hours with the company he works for, Salesforce. Doing two, sometimes three shifts every week though, David hit his 56 hours of VTO pretty quickly. But according to David, “I can’t stop. I feel like I’m now part of a family.” In August, Salesforce awarded Our Neighbors’ Table a “Volunteer Rockstar Grant” in David’s name.
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David will tell you one of the things he loves about ONT is its size and local impact. “Because it’s small, you get to see the effectiveness of the organization. You get to know guests, and their kids.” When David first inquired about volunteering, he says he envisioned a food pantry with the bare necessities. Now, he has realized ONT is able to bring joy and abundance to families that can’t normally afford treats like the cakes David picks up from Stop and Shop on his usual Thursday volunteer shift. David echoes a sentiment that is common among our volunteers, “Any one of use could get something that knocks us on our feet. It’s up to the rest of us to take care of one another, especially in this political climate.” David has lived in Newburyport since 2003. When he is not working or volunteering, he likes to fix old radios and amps, play guitar, sail, and be with his family. 

November and December are a busy time at Our Neighbors' Table! Please check out our upcoming important program dates.

Community Events:

• Saturday, 11/23: Fill a Cruiser at Stop & Shop (Amesbury) and Crosby's Marketplace (Georgetown) thanks to the hard work of the Amesbury, Georgetown, Merrimac, Salisbury and West Newbury Police Departments! 
• Thursday, 11/28: Booster Food Drive at Amesbury v. Newburyport football game
• Sunday, 12/1: Watch for us in the Merrimac Santa Parade!
• Saturday, 12/7: Look for us in the Amesbury Holiday Parade!

Thanksgiving Holiday Food Distribution (by appointment):

• Tuesday, 11/19: 12:00pm - 3:00pm
• Wednesday, 11/20: 12:00pm - 3:00pm; 4:00pm - 6:00pm
• Thursday, 11/21: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
• Friday, 11/22: 9:00am - 12:00pm; 2:00pm - 4:00pm
• Saturday, 11/23: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Christmas Holiday Food Distribution (by appointment):

• Tuesday, 12/17: 12:00pm - 3:00pm
• Wednesday, 12/18: 12:00pm - 3:00pm; 4:00pm - 6:00pm
• Thursday, 12/19: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
• Friday, 12/20: 9:00am - 12:00pm; 2:00pm - 4:00pm
• Saturday, 12/21: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Wednesday Meal:

• There will be a meal the day before Thanksgiving on Wednesday, 11/27. Join us for meatball subs, fresh vegetable and soup of the day.
• The Christmas dinner with Santa will be Dec. 11, featuring free pictures with Santa, musical entertainment and lots of holiday cheer! 

Office & Market Holiday Closures

• The ONT Office and the Market will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday Nov. 28 - Dec. 1. There will be no grocery programs Nov. 28 - 30. 
• The ONT Office and all programs are closed Dec. 23 - Jan. 1, re-opening on Jan. 2, 2020. There is no Wednesday Meal on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1.

​Originally published as a column in the September 21 edition of the Newburyport Daily News: 
In our history, local food drives, collecting nonperishables purchased by community members, were a vital part of filling the shelves in Our Neighbors’ Table’s food pantries. Early partnerships with local stores like Stop & Shop and Vermette’s yielded a trunk full of surplus bread or desserts. But for most of our 27 years, most of our food came either from food drives, direct purchases or from a food bank. Today, things look a little differently. More than 25% of the food that stocks our markets is “rescued” from local retailers and wholesalers, redirected from landfills to our shelves and ultimately to neighbors who can really use it.
 
Our Neighbors’ Table, based in Amesbury, has been providing dignified food assistance to northeastern Essex County since 1992. In 2016, we turned the traditional food pantry model on its head, replacing it with a one-of-a-kind grocery market that guests and community members have likened to Stop & Shop or Whole Foods. In 2018, more than 4,000 people living in the greater Newburyport area shopped for groceries in our markets, now located in Amesbury, Newburyport and Merrimac. In 2018 we declared Amesbury a Food-Secure City and now set our sights on doing the same in Salisbury, Merrimac and Newburyport by the end of 2020.
 
While serving our neighbors in need is our primary mission, “rescuing” food and being good stewards of our land has also become an important part of our operation. Here are just a few of the ways ONT is lessening the impact of waste on our environment.

1. Keeping food out of landfills. Every year, the US food system throws out billions of pounds of perfectly good food. These foods are rejected because of packaging, restrictive guidelines and because we’ve been trained to only take a perfectly red apple. Since January, 1, 2019, ONT has already diverted 250,000 pounds of high quality, wholesome food (mostly meats, vegetables, and other valuable perishables) from the landfill to our market shelves.
2. Minimizing our own waste. ONT partners with local pig farmers for food waste and recycles its paper, metal and plastic waste. We are selective about the food donations we accept and work to educate our volunteers, donors and guests on the truth about “ugly” fruits and vegetables. We hope this will foster their own smarter shopping as well.
3. Minimizing household waste. Traditional food pantries often ration and pre-determine the selection of foods. This approach actually encourages shoppers to stockpile from week to week until they have enough of an item to have enough to feed a family. At ONT, shoppers are welcomed to take what and how much they need and can trust that the food supply is consistent and accessible every week. As a result, guests have reduced the amount of food they take each week by over 10% and, most importantly, they use everything they take.
4. Incentivizing re-usable bags. Like everyone else, we also hate plastic shopping bags. But not everyone can afford re-usable bags – and sometimes we just forget them at home! We’ve distributed thousands of re-usable bags and use fun incentives like gift card raffles to encourage our shoppers to bring them each week. We’re a long way from the finish line, but I’d guess we’ve since cut our use of plastic bags by more than 50%.

 
There’s still a long way to go for the mainstream food industry, from restaurants to grocery store patrons, to become better shoppers and reduce waste in our food supply chain. For now, ONT has been able to put that surplus and rejected food to good use. I’d also like to think we can serve as a model for us all to change the way we take food for granted and lessen our own footprints in the vast land of food waste.

The summer is bittersweet. We get to drink up the sun and warmth of one of the best times of year in coastal New England. At the same time, we are reminded that time has passed quickly and another year will soon be history.

Here at ONT, Summer 2019 marks the half-way point for 2020 Strategic Plan: A Path to Food Security, which charts our course to raise awareness of food insecurity in our region, build ONT’s partnerships and capacity to address need, and, most importantly, to ensure that the communities of Amesbury, Newburyport, Salisbury and Merrimac can become food-secure. These are ambitious goals and it sometimes feels daunting to think we could achieve them in just 18 more months. However, now seems like the perfect time to recap how far we’ve come in the last year-and-a-half to motivate us to the finish line.
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Creating a Food-Secure Region is a marathon, not a sprint. Some miles will be tough, while others are a smooth, flat coast (our Run Out Hunger team members will agree down-hill can be just as hard as up). But, through partnerships and solidarity with our neighbors, we are getting closer and closer to our goal.

​Join us at Newburyport's Cashman Park for our popular annual food truck festival! Presented by the Institution for Savings, Fill 'Em Up Fest is a family-friendly event featuring delicious food from the area's best food trucks, local beer, live music from Alex Anthony and games for the kids. 

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Children 12 and under are free!

Can we fill 'em up? You can help feed 30 neighbors for a whole year! Your ticket purchase supports the 1 in 16 people living in our region who don't know where their next meal is coming from, including 1 in 5 seniors and 1 in 8 children. Every dollar donated provides 1 meal to a neighbor. 
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Last year's favorites Empanada Dada, Phoenix Rising, Clyde's Cupcakes and Chick & Dogs are joined by Big Rig BBQ , Metzy's and Sacred Cod. Hope to see you on September 7! 

Lisa Flynn wasted no time diving into volunteering after she retired, and it didn’t take her long to become a regular volunteer with Our Neighbors’ Table! She came to volunteer orientation after a few weeks of retirement at the recommendation of Beth and Alan Ayres (amazing ONT volunteers themselves!). Lisa immediately felt the power and warmth of the ONT community.
​“It feeds the soul,” Lisa will tell you, “The people- volunteers, guests, staff—good people doing good things.” Very quickly, Lisa was volunteering every week at the Wednesday Meal (she’s the “Salad and Soup Lady”) and in the ONT office as receptionist. Read more about Lisa in the month's Volunteer Spotlight.

​These Great Neighbors are making a big impact on hunger. Join their ranks and become a Great Neighbor today! 

Summer 2019 marks the half-way point for 2020 Strategic Plan: A Path to Food Security, which charts our course to raise awareness of food insecurity in our region, build ONT’s partnerships and capacity to address need, and, most importantly, to ensure that the communities of Amesbury, Newburyport, Salisbury and Merrimac can become food-secure. These are ambitious goals and it sometimes feels daunting to think we could achieve them in just 18 more months. However, now seems like the perfect time to recap how far we’ve come in the last year-and-a-half to motivate us to the finish line.

Creating a Food-Secure Region is a marathon, not a sprint. Some miles will be tough, while others are a smooth, flat coast (our Run Out Hunger team members will agree down-hill can be just as hard as up). But, through partnerships and solidarity with our neighbors, we are getting closer and closer to our goal.
​
Click on the below photos for further details about ONT's progress to date!

​In 2018, ONT conducted a regional needs assessment to better understand for whom and why food insecurity continued to be a significant problem. Nearly half of those testing positive for food insecurity were parents or grandparents with children 0-18 in the home. For these families, the number one reported reason for worrying about or going without adequate, quality food was not having enough money to cover the expenses of living, including being able to buy enough food.
 
In the survey, ONT asked if these families were using any private or public programs to help keep food on the table. These responses were just as troubling:

• Less than half of families in need utilize free or reduced meals at school
• 58% were using local food programs (like ONT or other similar programs)
• 1 out of 5 are enrolled in SNAP
• 1 in 4 are enrolled in WIC

 
With this information in hand, ONT has set out to reach these families and we’re starting where we know most families go: the pediatrician’s office! Thanks to Massachusetts’ strong focus on access to health care over the last 15 years, nearly all children are seen regularly by their pediatrician. In 2018, ONT partnered with Newburyport-based Children’s Health Care to ensure that screening for food insecurity would be an integral part of providing preventive care to children across our region.
 
The ONT-CHC partnership builds on a growing interest in the health care field to integrate “Social Determinants of Health” into health care. These are the non-medical factors that can influence someone’s well-being, like poverty, pollution, or community violence, and, research shows, has strong correlations to increased illnesses and costs of health care.
 
In early 2019, ONT trained 75 CHC staff – physicians, nurse practitioners, medical assistants and even office staff – on the prevalence and effects of food insecurity in our region, how to discuss concerns with caregivers in a compassionate manner, and, most importantly, how to connect families with ONT’s Food Resource Advocate to ensure they will get connected with helpful and much-needed food resources.
 
Food insecurity is a community problem, and it is also a very personal matter. Parents are guarded and, for many reasons, fearful of talking about their struggles. Through this partnership, ONT and CHC are building trust and offering real solutions to local families. The goal: no more families fall through the cracks and every child and their parent have the nourishing food they need to thrive.

​Lisa Flynn wasted no time diving into volunteering after she retired, and it didn’t take her long to become a regular volunteer with Our Neighbors’ Table! Lisa retired from Welch’s (the jam and jelly company) in December last year and came to ONT volunteer orientation at the beginning of February. Lisa’s friends and amazing ONT volunteers Beth and Alan Ayres highly recommended Our Neighbors’ Table. Lisa immediately felt the power and warmth of the ONT community. “It feeds the soul,” Lisa will tell you, “The people- volunteers, guests, staff—good people doing good things.”

Very quickly, Lisa was volunteering every week at the Wednesday Meal (she’s the “Salad and Soup Lady”) and in the ONT office as receptionist. Lisa shares her professional skills by meticulously assisting ONT’s development team with thank you letters for donations, but her real passion lies in working directly with guests. “I love working with people, and being able to make someone’s life a tiny bit better feels better than anything else in this world.” She looks forward to getting trained as a guest intake volunteer so she can welcome new market guests and help them get the resources they need.
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Lisa lives in Newburyport with her husband Dennis. In her free time she enjoys baking (the products of which she shares with staff and volunteers at ONT!), crocheting, and spending time with her family and dog. 

Our Neighbors’ Table, a non-profit organization that has turned food assistance on its head by providing flexible, personalized programs through Northeastern Essex County, today announced that it is poised to declare Newburyport, Salisbury and Merrimac “Food Secure Cities” by the end of 2020.   This comes on the heels of declaring Amesbury its first Food Secure City in 2018.  Additionally, Our Neighbors’ Table has laid out a strategic plan to ensure its entire service region in Northeastern Essex County is food-secure by 2029. 
 
 Our Neighbors’ Table has secured both short and long-term investments that help make this vision possible:

• A three-year grant of $150,000 from the Mary Alice Arakelian Foundation launched a program to implement universal food insecurity screening and intervention for Children’s Health Care’s 16,000 patients.
• A sustaining grant from the Cummings Foundation, $500,000 over 10 years, that allowed the organization to project the possibility of a food secure region by 2029.
• Additional investments from the United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley and Steward Health are putting the critical work of the FSAG into action and giving it the capacity to evaluate the impact of food security on the health and stability of the entire community.
  

“The volume of meals we have distributed has more than doubled over the last three years. Our focus now is ensuring those meals get into the hands of all of our neighbors who need it,” explains Executive Director Lyndsey Haight. . “While the economy is thriving for some, we are seeing more and more people in our community falling through the cracks. We’ve seen first-hand the impact we can have when individuals, city- and town-services, businesses, and community groups come together. Food security is something we can provide for every person living in our community.”
 
Despite the economic recovery and the prevalence of wealth in the region, the level of food insecurity in northeastern Essex County has increased by almost 10%, by more than 15% in Newburyport and by 40% in Salisbury, since 2015 (data provided by Greater Boston Food Bank).
 
Serving 11 communities of northeastern Essex County, ONT has established a strong collective formally known as the Food Security Advisory Council (FSAG) that is working together to better understand the barriers that prevent local residents from accessing adequate and nutritious food on a daily basis and to formalize effective strategies to make food available and accessible to everyone when and where it is needed.
 
Food Insecurity is defined by the USDA is a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.
 
The Food Security Advisory Council includes the Mayors of Newburyport and Amesbury; Anna Jaques Hospital, Superintendents from the Amesbury, Newburyport, Triton and Pentucket school districts; Children’s Health Care; Councils on Aging in Salisbury and Newburyport; and law enforcement, social service providers, and town officials from across the region.
 
Hunger affects 1 out of every 16 people living in northeastern Essex County. That means there are 6,000 neighbors with empty plates on their tables. Even more staggering, 1 out of every 5 of our seniors and 1 out of every 8 children in our region are struggling through each day without enough food. Our Neighbors’ Table has eliminated the traditional approach of strict schedules, cumbersome qualification and limited food selection by offering people-centric experiences and access to fresh, wholesome food when and where people throughout northeastern Essex County need it. Our grocery programs provide food assistance to individuals and families living in Amesbury, Boxford, Byfield, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, South Hampton (NH), and West Newbury. Visit ourneighborstable.org for more information.
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Our Neighbors' Table is proud to be one of the four game-changing community partnerships that became the first to win grants of up to $75,000 at United Way of Massachusetts Bay’s first-ever Venture Fund competition, held in collaboration with Aetna, a CVS Health Company.  The live “pitch event” in May featured eight finalists, narrowed from an original pool of 76 applicants, who presented their ideas to an expert panel of judges and the broader community, with four winners awarded up to $75,000 on the spot from the United Way Social Innovation Venture Fund, presented by Aetna, to implement their initiatives.

In addition to a Venture Fund award, Our Neighbors’ Table also won the evening’s $5,000 Audience’s Choice Award.

United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, in collaboration with Aetna, a CVS Health company, created its first-ever Social Innovation Venture Fund competition to seed new, innovative and collaborative solutions to entrenched community issues.   Through this process, United Way will make one-year grants to a portfolio of nonprofit organizations that have the experience, community presence, and relationships to approach a big problem in a new way, as well as a long-term vision for how their approach can be scaled to achieve lasting change for all those who need it in their community.
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“This has the potential to be transformative for those who need our help,” said Karley Ausiello, Senior Vice President for Community Impact at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley.  “Our goal as a catalyst fund is to support those projects are led by an experienced nonprofit that knows the issue inside and out and has the staff to get the job done, depends on partnerships between nonprofits and organizations in other sectors, like business or government, to work, engages the community they aim to serve and has clearly defined and measurable goals.”

Below is the blog post originally published on the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley's blog outlining ONT's work and award-winning proposal.  
In 2018, something truly significant happened in the City of Amesbury. A nonprofit called Our Neighbors’ Table declared that the city had achieved food security. This was no small announcement. It meant that every Amesbury resident could access the food they needed on any given day. By way of comparison, just three years prior, 1,200 Amesbury residents were food insecure.

Not only is no one in Amesbury going hungry today. No one has to worry about how they will find their next meal.

Making Amesbury food secure was an ambitious, years-long project. Our Neighbors’ Table deployed a bold and innovative approach that aligned the efforts of all the city’s community groups to meet the one big goal of food security. Now, fueled by United Way of Massachusetts Bay’s first-ever Venture Fund competition, held in collaboration with Aetna, they have the influx of cash needed to bring their idea to life in other cities. They are taking their solution to the communities of Newburyport, Salisbury, and Merrimac, using the same winning approach to transform the culture, and eliminate food scarcity, within their footprint.

FOOD SECURITY: SOCIAL INNOVATION NEEDED
As Executive Director Lyndsey Haight explains, one thing is clear when addressing food insecurity: for many communities, traditional models– community meals, food pantries– don’t work.

“Before [we began our programming], we convened the four meal-based programs in the Newburyport area. We looked at their utilization data and discovered that only 30-40 percent of residents who could use the services were accessing them. The remaining were not getting the help they needed.”

To address this problem of access, Our Neighbors’ Table has allowed their model to evolve from providing a pantry, to something more akin to a grocery store, or what Haight describes as “a genuine shopping experience,” where people get food with no charge. They pair that with creative programs like home delivery and school-based farmers’ markets to meet the unique needs of the community.

The efforts have proved effective. Since introducing the farmers’ market and grocery store to the Newburyport area, Our Neighbors’ Table has documented a 70 percent increase in people accessing food.

Changing the way people get connected with food resources is a critical first step to removing the physical barriers people face to putting food on the table. Getting to the designation of “food secure” also requires transforming community culture. People must feel safe and welcome getting the help they need. The agency addresses stigma, and works to build awareness of the prevalence of food insecurity to help the entire community better understand both the problem and its solutions. According to Haight, the agency is “really driven by the guests’ experience. We’re committed to providing the most dignified experience possible. We respond to the needs of people seeking help. We’re really looking to meet people where they are, and eliminating the barriers between people and food.”

Haight acknowledges a common experience: “Every time I tell an audience how many people are food insecure, there are gasps. Some people wonder if I’m being truthful.”

Increasing awareness and reducing stigma requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. Haight describes a community engagement plan that includes the schools, the city, healthcare providers, youth services, and faith and civics-based groups. Haight explains: “We have four school districts. Mayors, managers, superintendents, law enforcement, hospitals, other social service agencies. The Greater Boston Food Bank. All of them come together on a regular basis to review the system and evaluate our progress.”

Bringing all of these groups together further helps to remove stigma. Haight recognizes the biggest hurdle is creating trust. It takes, she says, a lot of conversation and acknowledgement of community members’ blind spots, insecurities, and tendencies to stereotype.

“We’re all raised to do the right thing… to be honest, not to cheat, to be trustworthy. But for some reason, we’re also taught that other people are not going to do the right thing. Our biggest challenge is to break through that distrust. Well-intentioned people can still not trust someone who comes and asks for help.”

Moments where distrust arises are used by Our Neighbors’ Table as teaching moments, as the agency continues to work with a community.

FOOD SECURITY, SCALED
“We’ve taken the 26 years of experience from Amesbury to replicate it in our other communities, in a much more expedited way,” Haight says. How expedited? Haight believes by 2029, all 12 communities, or the entire region Our Neighbors’ Table serves, can be declared food secure. The fuel provided by United Way’s Venture Fund, Haight says, has made a big difference.

“Being declared a finalist has focused the attention of United Way’s audience and validated our approach to fueling collaboration toward a common goal. United Way has tremendous amount of credibility based on its due diligence. Not only does it raise our confidence internally, it raises the confidence of our partners.”
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Haight hopes the venture funding will be a trampoline that her agency can use to launch the next ten years. “Getting the funding was a pivotal moment for food security in our region.”

Feeding America and the Greater Boston Food Bank have just released updated data on the rate of food insecurity across the US and Massachusetts. According to Feeding America’s “Map the Meal Gap” report:

• The national rate of food insecurity dropped slightly from 12.9%of the total population to 12.5%;
• Nationally, the rate of food insecurity among children dropped from 17.5 percent of  to 17%.
• Across the Commonwealth, food insecurity has dropped almost to pre-recession rates.

So, that’s good news right? Well, unfortunately, the picture in northeastern Essex County seems to be bucking the trend.

First, let me provide a little context.  Since 2015, ONT has worked with data estimates of 6,000 food insecure individuals in northeastern Essex County (1 out of 8 children; 1 out of 5 seniors) across our service area (GBFB, 2015). However, the latest data provided to ONT from Greater Boston Food Bank indicates a regional increase to 6,500.  While that may not seem like a huge number, it’s a more than 15% increase in need across 5 of the 10 Massachusetts communities we serve.

​When you’re in a growing economy, there is a mindset that “a rising tide raises all ships.”  However, it’s important to remember that a growing economy can also result in the cost of living outpacing wage growth, especially for those living on fixed incomes or working in our local service industries.  Massachusetts, according to Feeding America, now has the highest food costs in the country, leaving local residents with an average $21 shortfall to afford 3 meals a day.
 
Let me rephrase that: A family of four would typically consume 84 meals in a week. But current wages, cost of living and food costs now force that family of four to live on only 61.6 meals for the week, meaning everyone can only eat twice a day, or, most likely, mom and dad will alternate days eating so their children don’t have to go without. “Sorry, Mom, it’s Tuesday – it’s Dad’s turn to eat.”

This rise in need likely does not come as a surprise to those of us providing food or financial assistance; teachers who see students come to school hungry every day; or emergency room physicians who see the spike in illness related to malnutrition. But for many, this need – right in our backyards - remains hidden in the shadows.
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So what can we do – collectively – to make sure that our friends and neighbors and colleagues are getting what they need to get on the path to food security?
 
Step 1 is understanding:
We must better understand the local barriers that prohibit people from accessing adequate, quality food to support a healthy lifestyle (the USDA definition of “food secure”). Last year, in partnership with members of its Food Security Advisory Group, ONT surveyed local residents to measure rates of food insecurity and understand its causes. In a diverse sample including individuals and households across the age spectrum, 25% (1 out of 4) tested positive for food insecurity. Among them, 55% reported employment as their primary source of income, yet 70% reported “not enough money” as the primary obstacle to keeping themselves and their family fed.
 
The other alarming statistic we’ve uncovered is the gap between those who need help and those who are getting it. In recent years, various organizations have begun measuring the SNAP Gap – the percent of people who are eligible for SNAP (aka food stamps) but are not getting it. Nationally, the SNAP Gap stands at roughly 15%. In Massachusetts, it’s about 25%. In ONT’s service area, it’s 60%! Sixty percent of people who are eligible for SNAP are not getting the benefits they need. As we work with our local partners who are also providing food assistance, that SNAP Gap is consistent with how many people in need in Newburyport are utilizing services and programs available.
 
Why is this important? It requires us to examine what services are available and how they are delivered. We ask ourselves these questions every day:

• Are services accessible to people in need?
• Do they provide meaningful assistance?
• Does our community culture support people in asking for and receiving help when they need it?

The mission of ONT and the Food Security Advisory Group is to ensure that the answer to these questions in our community is “Yes”, but we can’t do it alone.