With the COVID-19 pandemic receding and a project to create a new Food and Nutrition Center complete, The Open Door food pantry on Emerson Avenue restarted in-person dining for its Community Meals program in early February after a nearly four-year hiatus.
Bringing back Community Meals to its dining area “was the last leg of the journey for us,” President and CEO Julie LaFontaine said.
Recent in-person Community Meals have featured baked haddock, rice and zucchini, and Greek-style chicken souvlaki, lima beans, eggplant and tomato.
Even as the numbers for in-person dining are still ramping up, the nonprofit food resource center said it saw a 30% increase in requests for food assistance across its service area from 2022 to 2023.
This territory covers Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Ipswich, Rowley, Topsfield, Boxford, Hamilton and Wenham with mobile sites in Danvers and Lynn.
The Open Door operates a food pantry in Gloucester on Emerson Avenue and the Ipswich Community Food Pantry at the Ipswich Housing Authority’s Southern Heights housing development.
Last year, the food pantry served one in six Gloucester residents.
Rising prices, rising need
“We did see a 30% increase in requests for food assistance,” LaFontaine said. “So people who may have only been coming once a month came twice a month or three times a month as the need rose, as the cost of food especially rose, people found it harder and harder to keep a roof over their head, lights on, and food on the table. It was just a juggling act.”
While it’s not true for everyone who uses the food pantry, the spike in the cost of living was a contributing factor to the household instability Open Door staff have seen.
“The good news is that it’s a story of hope as people recover … people are getting back to work, and people are starting to climb out of the hole that the increase in cost created,” LaFontaine said.
Last year, The Open Door provided 1.98 million pounds of food which equates to 1.65 million meals to 9,836 individuals in 4,952 households, according to its most recent fact sheet.
It saw 77,400 visits and its kitchen prepared 91,700 Community Meals, including Meals To-Go, Senior Soup and Salad at the Rose Baker Senior Center in Gloucester, and other community meal programs, including 6,500 meals delivered by volunteers.
In addition, The Open Door served 15,300 summer meals to children last summer.
Its Mobile Market served 3,289 people 187,000 pounds of food in 2023.
And 28% of food distributed last year consisted of fresh produce. The Ipswich Community Food Pantry served 562 individuals 149,000 pounds of food, while the Gloucester pantry served 5,371 people 1.3 million pounds of food.
Ways to dine
On hand Thursday in the Open Door kitchen in Gloucester were Dan Trimble of Salem, the food services manager, and executive chef Thomas Riordan, who previously owned Ripple on the Water in Essex.
Prep cook Kenn Taber of Gloucester and others were busy preparing a savory dish of ramen noodles with stock that included seaweed, dried mushrooms, pork and chicken that had been simmered overnight in a large tilt skillet in the facility’s brand new commercial kitchen.
The Open Door offers many ways for its clients to dine, either in-person, to-go, or having their meals delivered, LaFontaine said. That’s in addition to being able to order groceries online and being able to pick them up.
“All of those choices mirror how we get our food in a socially acceptable way,” she said. The in-person Community Meals give people one more way to connect.
One of the greatest stories of the pandemic was the way people stepped up to help “and that hasn’t stopped.” The way the food pantry operates may have changed, but that has not lessened the need for volunteers. The fulfillment center has 170 volunteer slots each week that need to be filled to pick and pack groceries, LaFontaine said.
“And, bringing back community meals is so important because people are hungry not just in their bodies, but also in their spirits and the companionship they find around the table really makes the difference for so many people,” she said.
Free in-person dining at The Open Door, 28 Emerson Ave., is available Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., with extra meals available to-go for the weekend. Free Meals To-Go are available Monday through Wednesday from 3 to 5 p.m., and from Thursday to Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. at the food pantry. To learn more, go to foodpantry.org.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at [email protected].
By Ethan Forman | Staff Writer
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