Our Neighbors' Table (ONT) currently has 31% more people relying on us than during the historic pandemic crisis of 2020. Federal, state and local investments are more vital than ever to help ONT and our partners keep pace with the rising use of our services. Feeding our region requires number of different of resources, each vital to sustaining the system. These are 5 areas we all must prioritize in 2025 to meet the growing needs in our region in 2025:

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a crucial layer to our local food safety net, providing qualifying households additional money in their food budgets. Last year, Our Neighbors' Table helped secure more than $440,000 in SNAP funds through our contract as a Community Outreach Provider. Cuts to this program trickle down to the local economy, taking money away from retailers and forcing these households to rely on grocery and meal programs.

As federal spending is reduced, more reliance will build on state, municipal and private funding. State leaders are currently considering a cap on tax benefits for donations at $10,000, removing a key incentive for larger gifts. We must make sure that the budget package and policy changes don't do anything to discourage impactful private funding, including capping deductions for charitable contributions. Contact your state representative and ask them to stand up for our neighbors in need.

On Tuesday, more than 250 local leaders, businesses, volunteers, donors and supporters came together at Blue Ocean Event Center in Salisbury Beach for a special morning to celebrate a transformational year for food security and carry forward our mission to create a community that serves with kindness and dignity.
Our Annual Breakfast is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and thanks to your support, we raised the most money in the event’s history.
In one tightly-packed hour, we discussed the challenges and opportunities facing frontline food providers in Newburyport, Georgetown and Haverhill, and heard from our Executive Director Lyndsey Haight about all we have accomplished and set the stage for the year ahead.
We also had the honor of celebrating our 2024 Community Champions - two tremendous examples how our community feels a sense of duty to meet the needs of their neighbors:

• SPS New England, which this past year donated an entire loading dock – excavation, 40-plus trucks of concrete and all of the labor – that is allowing our regional partners to access their food more efficiently at the Seacoast Regional Food Hub, putting less demand on their volunteers and need for a weekly ride to Boston.
• And the Dolan/MacDonald family, who have exemplified our mission for more than 30 years, and through three generations.

One of the most memorable moments of this year’s breakfast was a recorded video from Charlene MacDonald, who couldn’t be with her parents and brother in Salisbury Tuesday morning to accept the award, but beautifully captured the ethic her grandparents and parents instilled in her.
"I was raised to believe that every child deserves a chance, and every adult deserves a second chance regardless of where we come from, the color of our skin or the choices we've made."
We have a growing community of people that stand with them. Thank you to everyone who joined together to take care of your neighbors.
Learn more about our vision for a food secure region by 2029 here.
Together, we’ll make every table full! 

Time is running out! If Our Neighbors’ Table can raise $20,000 by Saturday, August 31, we have been pledged an additional $20,000 matching gift. This match provides the unique opportunity to DOUBLE your donation’s impact.  
Can you help us reach our goal?
Since we launched this challenge on Sunday, we have already received more than $10,000 in donations, but we have a long way to go.
The number of people struggling to keep enough food on the table continues to grow. Our most recent data shows visits to our programs have increased 25% over last year. The $40,000 can purchase 40,000 meals for neighbors.
When you support Our Neighbors’ Table, you directly impact our must vulnerable in 11 communities across the region. Join us and make sure everyone has consistent, reliable access to healthy food. Our communities are stronger when our neighbors are full. 

When we provide services with kindness and dignity, we know more will accept the help they need. And due to the rising cost of living and public benefits that are barely keeping up with inflation, more people than ever are seeking our services.
New registrations for our grocery program rose 58% in June over the same month last year. Of those new registrants, more than 75% said they feared running out of food in the past three months and 50% had to go without food with no money to buy more.
Children are our fastest growing demographic, with as many as 1 in 3 students in many local schools relying on free breakfast and lunch - meals that go away during the summer months, adding to household food budgets.
At Our Neighbors’ Table, the work never stops, and that’s why we continue to scale our work to meet the needs of the region.
In June, we opened the Our Neighbors’ Table Salisbury Market at 114 Bridge Road to a line of smiling shoppers. 
The new market uses the same innovative model that helped make Amesbury the nation’s first food secure city in 2018, offering a variety of fresh foods in a bright and vibrant grocery store setting. For families, the market offers extra summer groceries that fills the school meal gap.
We temporarily closed the market at the Jardis-Taylor Center in Amesbury for renovations and will reopen it in the fall, providing the region with two free grocery markets to serve people in need. And while it’s not yet complete, the Seacoast Regional Food Hub is already expanding resources for the region, and has distributed more than 546,000 pounds of food to partners across the region.
Building community level food security requires a community-wide effort, and only happens when people like you donate time and treasure. Thank you for your continued commitment to our mission.

The Annual Breakfast is returning to the Blue Ocean Event Center this year! Join us on Tuesday, October 22, from 7:30-9:00 am to learn more about the growing need and how we are mobilizing our communities to create a food secure region! ​

As we scale our work to meet the growing needs of the region, we have added new members to our staff in recent months.
Our new team members include:

• Uzma Akhtar, Associate Director of Supply Chain & Logistics, will lead our warehouse team and manage our food supply
• Cainan Santana, Warehouse Assistant, supports our warehouse operations

We are currently hiring for a part-time Market Supervisor. Want to join a small team making a big impact? Learn more on or Job Opportunities page!

At ONT, our volunteers come from all walks of life and backgrounds.
​Two of those committed volunteers are Steven Roller (pictured) and Macy Sliwa from Coastal Connections, whose new site is located just steps away from the Jardis-Taylor Center.
Coastal Connections, Inc. supports people with disabilities to achieve their full potential by creating personalized programs that promote living, working, learning and playing in the community.
​"By volunteering, our individuals get to assess their interests in various settings," said Executive Director Sheila Skane. "Individuals work on developing and enhancing not only vocational skills, but personal and social skills as well. We strive to provide the best support to our individuals, so that each person can become an essential contributing member of their community through dynamic programs that create an environment of lifelong learning."
Each Tuesday, Steven and Macy visit the Amesbury Market and help with tasks like washing windows and dusting shelves. For ONT and Coastal Connections, it's a win-win.
"Inherent in our mission is the need to give back and to contribute," Skane says. We must give as much as we receive, so we try to give back to the community." 
Become a volunteer today at ourneighborstabe.org/volunteer.​

Though the Seacoast Regional Food Hub won't be fully operational until the end of the summer, ONT and its partners are already benefitting from more efficient access to their food deliveries from the Greater Boston Food Bank.
Currently organizations from seven communities across the Lower Merrimack Valley, including Newburyport, Newbury, Salisbury, Haverhill and Lawrence, are now getting their deliveries in Salisbury, rather than trucking into downtown Boston. 
This summer we hope to begin to open up the 7,000 square feet of storage and 3,000 square feet of cold storage to our partners. Once fully operational, the Seacoast Regional Food Hub will give us the added storage and distribution to transform the region's food safety net!
We continue to raise money for our capital campaign and need our community's investment to operate the hub debt free. Go to our website and get involved today!

As we scale our work to support providers across the region, we have added new members to our staff this spring.
Our new team members are:

• Susan Hogan, Office Operations Manager, who will oversee our office and facilities
• Bergen Daley, Development Operations Coordinator, who will support our fundraising team

Want to join a small team making a big impact? Job openings can be found at ourneighborstable.org/job-opportunities.

For Diane Casey of Amesbury, giving back to her community has given her another purpose in life and is what led her to Our Neighbors' Table.
Diane began volunteering at ONT in 2022 because it offered opportunities that fit her busy schedule and a chance to work behind the scenes, while making an impact on an important mission. A Boston commuter during the week, she started working in the warehouse on Saturday morning with a group of regulars who became a tight-knit team.
“It’s the same crew every Saturday morning. We work in the market, dry goods, freezer and warehouse,” she says. “It’s such a great group of people, and I look forward to volunteering every week.”
One of the things she likes about the warehouse is it’s a role that lets you have an impact on all parts of the organization. After being asked to set aside supplies for the Community Meal, she was inspired to sponsor a meal in her late father’s honor, and now she has sponsored two Wednesday meals.
Diane says the experience has broadened her view of her hometown and neighbors, and given her an opportunity to make a difference.
“Food insecurity is real, and helping these people is fulfilling in so many ways.” she says.
Join Our Community!
Becoming a volunteer at ONT is as easy as:

1. Filling out an application
2. Attending a one-hour orientation
3. Signing up for your first shift!

There is something for everyone in the market, warehouse, meal or office.
Click here to get started!

The USDA has awarded Our Neighbors’ Table (ONT) a $400,000 grant for its work to expand food security and reduce the impacts of food loss and waste.
The highly-competitive Community Food Projects grant program, funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), highlighted 12 food access programs across the country making a significant impact on the reduction of food waste and loss. Currently in the United States, more than one-third of all available food goes uneaten through loss or waste, according to the USDA.
The grant, to be paid out over four years, will support the operation of the Seacoast Regional Food Hub in Salisbury on behalf of the Lower Merrimack Valley Coalition, a network of frontline food providers in 17 communities. The Hub will be owned and operated by ONT, a regional food access program based in Amesbury and Salisbury.
Once complete, the 24,000 square foot facility will significantly expand the region’s ability to capture and store surplus food from grocers, wholesalers, restaurants and other sources. The Food Hub will include 7,000 square feet of dry storage, 3,000 square feet of cold storage, and a Greater Boston Food Bank cross-dock that will allow for larger and more efficient deliveries and distribution for frontline food providers.
“We are grateful that USDA recognized the tremendous impacts of this important project, which is going to transform the food safety net for tens of thousands of neighbors across the region,” said ONT Executive Director Lyndsey Haight. “We still need significant community investment to get this project across the finish line, and we hope this grant will inspire others to join us in creating universal food access for all.”
In its effort to build universal food access, ONT has convened the Lower Merrimack Valley Food Coalition, a group of more than 30 frontline providers from Amesbury to Lawrence to Rowley that includes the Seacoast Food Providers network, the safety net in 12 Essex County communities that ONT supports directly.
ONT has raised $4.2 million toward the $7.8 million project, which will fully open in late summer of 2024. Fully funding the project will allow the Seacoast Regional Food Hub to operate debt free.
The elimination of food loss and waste is an additional benefit of the project, and is a cross-cutting priority of the USDA’s food security work.
While adding hundreds of thousands of pounds of food annually to the region’s food safety net, the Seacoast Regional Food Hub will keep that food out of landfills, where it creates greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
ONT’s grant, to be paid over four years, is part of a $25 million federal investment into the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program, which supports food and nutrition insecurity, particularly among our nation’s most vulnerable populations.
“Grants supported by this investment will reduce the amount of excess food going to waste and help make wholesome and nutritious foods available to those who need it most. Now that’s a win-win,” said USDA Food Loss and Waste Liaison Jean Buzby.
Read more in the Newburyport Daily News

What will that look like? Our 3-year goals include:

• Broad education and training for communities to measure their STABLE TABLE®, the foundation of ONT's work.
• Shoring up the STABLE TABLE® pillars - local resources, public programs and community - in Salisbury, Newburyport and Merrimac.
• Mobilizing new partnerships in Georgetown, Newbury, Rowley, Groveland, Boxford and West Newbury.
• And strengthening ONT as a resilient learning organization equipped to coordinate this new transformation in food security service delivery.

One constant remains true – creating food secure communities takes the engagement and action of the entire community. We launched the conversation with you at the Hub on October 24. I look forward to the possibilities and real impact that each new conversation will unfold. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to food for all. 
Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season, 
Lyndsey Haight
Executive Director

The 2023 Annual Breakfast put the 7,000 square foot warehouse of the future Seacoast Regional Food Hub on full display for more than 250 guests on Tuesday, October 24.
The event, ONT's only major fundraiser of the year, raised more than $100,000 to fund ONT's markets, warehouse and other programs.
Highlights of the morning included:
Welcome remarks from Kim Rock, Chief Operating Officer for presenting sponsor Institution for Savings
An update from ONT Executive Director Lyndsey Haight on the state of food security in the region and the exciting opportunities we have with the arrival of the Seacoast Food Hub.
The awarding of our 2023 Community Champions - the Greater Boston Food Bank and do-it-all volunteer and outgoing board member Eve Lee - and remarks from GBFB Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Schondek and Eve, who sent her acceptance speech by video from Malaysia. 
And before we let everyone on their way, ONT Board Chairman Mike Wendt helped us build connections in the crowd and pledge actions moving forward to mobilize our communities and bring us a step closer to a food secure region!
Thank you to all who joined us in-person and supported us from afar. We look forward to seeing you next year!