Sustainable Food Security for the Seacoast
Photos by Michael Piazza
The sunny, spacious market looks like a neighborhood grocery store with cheerful greeters, busy stockers, helpful checkout people and happy shoppers. Some come dressed in medical scrubs after their shift; some come in the afternoon with their elderly parents or after school with their kids. The difference is, here, at Our Neighbors’ Table Market, the food is free for its customers.
This market is just one component of the new Seacoast Regional Food Hub, a 24,000-square-foot facility that not only helps meet the needs of food-insecure individuals in the area, but also serves as a distribution center for a growing number of food pantries and meal programs across the Lower Merrimack Valley. The Hub, which opened its warehouse and market in June 2024, represents a big step forward in establishing a regional system to meet the needs of more than 32,000 food-insecure homes.
At the Market, guests check in with a greeter and then shop as they would in any grocery store. They fill their carts with items like almond milk, fruit juices, peanut butter and staples like rice and beans from the dry goods area. A variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables is on display across the aisle from a refrigerated section displaying meat, poultry, milk and cheese. The toiletries area offers diapers, toothbrushes, shampoo and soap. The final step is checkout, where grocery carts are weighed, and the contents are taken home in bags, feeding a weekly average of 1,600 households across 10 communities in northern Essex County.
“For our guests, the first day is the worst day,” says Lyndsey Haight, executive director of Our Neighbors’ Table. “That’s the moment when a person realizes they need help to feed themselves and often their families. We believe that dignity makes a difference. Our markets have proven that when you reduce stigma and provide a dignified experience, more people seek help.”
A woman who had recently separated from her husband and was struggling to feed her two teenage boys, says, “I sat in the parking lot for a good 15 minutes before I got up the courage to go in because I was ashamed.” She goes on to say, “It was an instant relief. I was greeted warmly by Lori, one of the staff members. She restored my dignity within moments.”
A recent survey of Our Neighbors’ Table guests demonstrates the need. In the last three months, 71% of respondents say that they were sometimes or often worried about running out of food before they got money to buy more; 67% said they sometimes or often chose between buying food or paying for other, non-food expenses; 59% said that sometimes or often the food they bought didn’t last and they didn’t have money to buy more. According to comments from one survey respondent, “You helped me out of a year in hell with my kids … you are all my angels.” Another states, “This service has been a lifesaver during this tough time in my life.”
Prior to the Hub’s opening, local food programs were required to drive 50-plus miles to the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) for food and supplies. Now, most of that food is distributed from the Hub’s cross-dock, eliminating the need for round trips to Boston. Bonnie Shultz is the program director for Among Friends, a local program that serves three meals a week at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newburyport. Schultz explains that the idea for a seacoast food hub came when a group of local program directors got together on video conference calls so they could pool resources to meet the extreme challenges brought on during the Covid pandemic when the need was increasing and resources were scarce.
According to Schultz, “We were still driving to Boston to get our food, and we all needed more storage space. Our coalition, called the Seacoast Food Providers, put together a proposal to develop our own food hub. Lyndsey Haight from Our Neighbors’ Table spearheaded the whole thing.”
As Haight puts it, “What we heard from the Seacoast Food Providers was a pervasive theme: lack of infrastructure. They didn’t have enough food to meet the demand, they had no trucks, no storage—all issues Our Neighbors’ Table faced back in 2012. We already had all these champions who were committed to ensuring the people in their neighborhoods were fed. They just needed the tools and the system to do it. We realized we could do something for the entire network and lift us all.” The Seacoast Regional Food Hub was the solution.
Schultz says, “Since the cross-dock opened at the Seacoast Regional Food Hub, we don’t need to drive into Boston anymore because we can get our same 2,500 pounds of food right across the bridge in Salisbury. I now have dry, refrigerated and freezer space at the Hub so I can accept and store more donations. In the past, we had to reject some donations because we couldn’t store them.”
Bill LaPierre runs the Sacred Hearts Ministries in Haverhill where 1,200–1,500 families come every week to get groceries. Prior to the opening of the Hub, five volunteers drove to GBFB every week to load 15,000 pounds of groceries. When the truck arrived in Haverhill, 12 volunteers had to be on hand to unload the truck.
According to LaPierre, “We are assisting more families now than we were during Covid because the cost of groceries has skyrocketed and people on a fixed income or those with low-wage jobs are struggling.” LaPierre also advocates for the region’s food-insecure residents through innovative programs like one at a local library where people are encouraged to pay their overdue book fines with food donations instead of cash. LaPierre asserts, “People can make a difference through their donations and it’s important to make everyone aware of the need in our area.”
Data from GBFB shows that one in three Massachusetts adults experiences food insecurity and in one out of every three households, a child skipped a meal within the last 30 days. The largest growing demographic among the market’s customer base is children, but the market directly serves guests from five area Councils on Aging. There is no income minimum for people to access the Salisbury Market, which is housed within the Hub. It is located at 114 Bridge Road (Route 1) and is open Thursdays 10am–6:30pm, Fridays 9am–3pm and Saturdays 9am–1pm.
The new Food Hub takes delivery from one, and sometimes two, loaded 18-wheelers from GBFB every week. The Hub’s 7,000 square feet of dry storage and 2,000 square feet of refrigeration enable it to accept direct donations from local stores and distributors. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food waste in the U.S. is estimated at between 30–40% of the food supply, corresponding to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food annually. Food that could be used to help needy people is decomposing in landfills across America. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, “Food waste comprises about 24% of municipal solid waste disposed of in landfills. Due to its quick decay rate, food waste in landfills is contributing to more methane emissions than any other landfilled materials.” The Seacoast Regional Food Hub is helping combat this problem by using its capacity to accept direct food donations from regional markets, farms and individuals.
The Hub’s communications director, Will Courtney, gives a recent anecdote: “A great example of the potential of this place is a truck delivering 18 cases of frozen bacon to Maine. That bacon needed to be delivered more than two weeks prior to the expiration date for the warehouse to accept it. It was rejected. Instead of dumping the load in a landfill, the driver diverted to the Seacoast Regional Food Hub for immediate distribution.”
Our Neighbors’ Table started as a small group of a dozen individuals who set out to offer meals to neighbors in Amesbury. It is now supported by more than 500 active volunteers and 15 staff members providing 18,570 prepared dinners, and 1.26 million pounds. of food. Lyndsey Haight joined the organization 14 years ago as its executive director to meet the growing demand. Haight’s goal is to make its coverage area a “Food Secure Region” by 2029.
Fundraising efforts continue for the new $7.8 million Seacoast Regional Food Hub. According to Courtney, “The capital campaign goal is $7.8 million, we are currently at $4.7 million so we’ve got quite a way to go. Money has been gathered from grants, state funding and donations, but we still need to close the gap and we’re running out of time.” Our Neighbors’ Table has secured a mortgage that is capped at 2.75% until 2027. The organization is looking to raise the additional $3.1 million to settle the debt before the interest rate on the mortgage increases.
For more information and to help raise funds, go to ourneighborstable.org/foodhub.
This story appeared in the Fall 2024 issue.
