People's Food Pantry, North Andover

On the second and fourth Tuesday every month, People’s Food Pantry provides groceries to more than 400 people in just 3½ hours at North Andover’s North Parish church.
“It’s nuts,” says Jen Cordes, the pantry’s unpaid co-coordinator for the past 8 years.
Since teaming up with Our Neighbors’ Table and the Seacoast Regional Food Hub in January, the pantry’s ability to serve the town’s estimated 4,000+ food insecure households has been transformed.
“Because we didn’t have storage, to make everything work we had to pick up and order less food,” she says. “Since signing on with the Hub and the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), we get three times as much food.”
People’s Food Pantry volunteers now pick up a GBFB delivery at the Food Hub each Monday, borrowing ONT’s truck to transport it up the I-495. Food the Pantry can’t store goes on a designated rack inside the Food Hub’s warehouse. Through the first six months of 2025, the pantry accessed nearly 100,000 pounds of food from the Hub and supplemental food from Stop & Shop, local bakeries and farms.
People’s Food Pantry was founded the same year as ONT – 1992. But like so many of the 27 frontline food providers in the Lower Merrimack Valley Food Coalition, the pantry’s ability to grow has been limited by a lack of resources. A single room in the church serves as storage. Fresh foods must fit in two refrigerators and a single freezer. A team of more than 60 local volunteers and their vehicles make sure food gets in and out the door each week.
With the expanded food supply and more efficient transport, Jen and co-coordinator, Fran Rohr will now grow the program. This year the pantry hired its first employee to help manage day to day operations, so that the coordinators can.step back from operations, plan for the future, and seek funding to expand their impact in North Andover. “Everyone has a role to play.”
Learn more about People's Food Pantry at peoplesfoodpantry.org.