Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Season 3, Episode 5 - Changing the Narrative of Local Hunger: A Community Pantry’s Battle Against Food Insecurity with Julie Lewis

Transcript

Season 3, Episode 5 - Changing the Narrative of Local Hunger: A Community Pantry’s Battle Against Food Insecurity with Julie Lewis · The Starfish Storytellers

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story
• 0:04
  at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
• 0:18
  So a few years ago, actually more than a few years ago now, it's probably about 20 years
• 0:23
  ago, I attended a volunteer appreciation brunch for people helping people, which is the organization
• 0:31
  I now work for.
• 0:35
  And I remember the keynote speaker said something that really stuck with me.
• 0:39
  He was a police commissioner, and I wish I could tell you his name.
• 0:43
  I don't remember his name, I don't even remember what city he was a police commissioner for.
• 0:47
  I think it was Boston, but I don't want to, I'm not totally sure.
• 0:52
  But I remember him saying that something he always tells his new recruits is when you
• 0:58
  walk into a situation, you meet a person no matter the scenario, lead with kindness and
• 1:06
  respect and understanding, knowing that you don't know what they're going through, and
• 1:12
  you don't know what their situation is, what their history is, you don't know anything
• 1:16
  about them.
• 1:19
  You know, and so that has always stuck with me still to this day.
• 1:24
  And you know, it's been really kind of that feeling has been bolstered because a few years
• 1:30
  after that, it was sort of flipped around on me because I have a 15 year old son and
• 1:36
  he is autistic.
• 1:39
  So he is pretty highly affected.
• 1:43
  As time has gone on, we've realized like he's a person who won't be able to live on his
• 1:48
  own.
• 1:49
  He's, you know, he's pretty high needs individual.
• 1:52
  And when he was a little kid, he would act out in public, you know, funny behaviors like
• 1:59
  flapping his hands and things that people would turn, you know, turn their heads or,
• 2:04
  you know, people looked at us a lot and sort of judged us.
• 2:08
  And when I got over, you know, I have long since gotten over worrying about what people
• 2:13
  think.
• 2:15
  But it sort of made me realize that it doesn't matter what the situation is like you just
• 2:21
  don't know, you know, people didn't know that he was that he had a disability and that
• 2:27
  was why he was acting that way.
• 2:29
  They just looked at us with judgment or not everybody, but some people did.
• 2:33
  And so, you know, I've kind of come out of this that that sort of experience saying,
• 2:41
  you know, that kid that's having a tantrum in public, I don't know their story.
• 2:45
  I don't know what led to that.
• 2:47
  This person that drove up to the food pantry, I don't know their story.
• 2:51
  And I'm not in a place to judge them.
• 2:54
  I'm just in a place to lead with compassion and kindness and understand that I don't know,
• 3:01
  you know, what's going on with them, but I should help them.
• 3:04
  And so that's that's my story.
• 3:29
  Hello, my name is Leanna Henry and welcome to the Starfish Storytellers.
• 3:33
  I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group, a Markham and Project Management firm headquartered on
• 3:38
  the east coast of the US in Quaint Colonial Bedford, Massachusetts.
• 3:42
  I'm your host and passionate about storytelling.
• 3:45
  I'm actually on a mission to raise up the next generation of storytellers.
• 3:49
  We've named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
• 3:54
  The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
• 3:57
  No matter how big the challenge, each action we take makes a difference and has an impact.
• 4:02
  One step, one starfish or one story at a time.
• 4:05
  Every episode we welcome a new storyteller who will share their story meant to inspire
• 4:09
  and connect with you.
• 4:11
  Then we'll break it down and offer tips for any listeners who are ready to tell their
• 4:14
  own stories.
• 4:15
  So thanks for tuning in.
• 4:16
  Now let's get started.
• 4:19
  Today's episode is about changing the narrative of local hunger, a community pantries battle
• 4:23
  against food insecurity.
• 4:25
  And with me is Julie Lewis, senior pantry manager at People Helping People.
• 4:31
  People Helping People is a non-profit organization in Burlington, Massachusetts that oversees
• 4:37
  the Burlington Community Food Pantry, the Burlington Covenant for Basic Needs, and the
• 4:42
  Holiday Program.
• 4:43
  As the senior pantry manager, Julie often has to share the realities of local hunger
• 4:48
  and food insecurity across social media, during community engagement events, when guiding volunteers,
• 4:55
  and when speaking publicly, which is no simple task.
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  So thank you for coming in to chat with us, Julie.
• 5:01
  We're really happy you're here.
• 5:02
  Thank you for having me.
• 5:03
  I'm excited to be here.
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  So we like to get started every episode by having our guests introduce themselves a little
• 5:11
  bit more.
• 5:12
  So would you mind telling us our listeners a little bit more about you?
• 5:16
  Sure.
• 5:17
  Thank you.
• 5:18
  Yep.
• 5:19
  So my name is Julie Lewis.
• 5:20
  I grew up in central New York, Ithaca area.
• 5:23
  Ithaca is gorgeous.
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  And I moved to the Boston area with my husband about 20 years ago, and he got a job out here.
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  And then shortly after that, I attended culinary school at the Cambridge School for Culinary
• 5:40
  Arts, and I have worked in food service and food service management for years since then.
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  I have three kids, 15.
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  My son is 15.
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  My daughter, middle daughter is 12, and my youngest is three.
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  He's also a girl.
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  And I love to, I'm a musician.
• 6:02
  I love to play piano and sing.
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  I play the ukulele.
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  I sing in my church's band, and I have a lot of hobbies, but I'm especially passionate
• 6:13
  about gardening.
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  So I have a huge vegetable garden, and I'm also passionate about cooking and baking,
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  you know, seeing as how I went to pastry school.
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  So yeah, that's me in a nutshell.
• 6:27
  Wow, that sounds amazing.
• 6:32
  I'm going to ask you some questions about your journey in a few minutes, but I just wanted
• 6:36
  to thank you for sharing your story with us.
• 6:40
  You know, I think it's important to have sort of for the lesson of compassion and to be sharing
• 6:46
  that important lesson wherever we go.
• 6:51
  You know, I think it sounds like, you know, at first it must have been hard to have, you
• 7:00
  know, being out in public with a child with special needs and other people really not
• 7:04
  understanding your sort of your journey, what he needs, what your struggles might be, what
• 7:10
  challenges you face, how you're overcoming, like, you know, that's a snapshot in time
• 7:15
  in that moment.
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  And, you know, and I think clearly you're carrying that compassion into your role as
• 7:22
  pantry manager right now at the Burlington pantry, the Burlington food pantry.
• 7:30
  You know, I know for a fact that, you know, for a lot of folks, local food pantries really
• 7:36
  are a lifeline.
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  And y'all are the frontline heroes against the war on hunger and really just existing
• 7:45
  in the community to ensure that people don't go hungry, you know, in an increasingly changing
• 7:51
  economic environment.
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  The ability of local food pantries to provide for those experienced hunger is getting more
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  and more challenging.
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  I've been doing a lot of reading about it.
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  And nonprofit food pantries are continually trying to build outreach programs for families
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  that might be struggling or individuals who might be struggling.
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  Some folks might have known hunger for generations while some are just starting to rely on this
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  assistance for the very first time, not ever expecting that they would become hungry.
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  And you know, it's through food donations, financial contributions and grants that local
• 8:24
  pantries are able to operate and offer.
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  Just that little bit of hope that just such a basic need can be cared for.
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  Do you have any thoughts on that?
• 8:37
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:39
  And you know, thank you so much for saying that about, you know, some individuals have
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  known hunger for generations.
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  And then there are some people who are just, you know, kind of realizing that they need
• 8:50
  help for the first time.
• 8:52
  And both situations are tough, but we, it doesn't matter the situation, we want to help.
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  So yeah, we make sure to, you know, as I mentioned in my story, like we lead with compassion
• 9:08
  and that sort of starts at the top and we train our volunteers to always treat everyone
• 9:15
  with kindness and respect.
• 9:16
  You never know their story.
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  So you always want to treat everyone with respect and kindness.
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  And so we try to overcome some of those barriers of people feeling embarrassed, maybe to come
• 9:26
  to the food pantry or being hesitant in some way by sort of upholding this reputation in
• 9:35
  our community of being a place that people can come that is safe and that you're always
• 9:40
  going to be treated with kindness when you come.
• 9:44
  But yeah, we rely on financial contributions from individuals, from companies.
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  You know, we do get some grant money, but really it's those sort of, it's those regular
• 9:57
  people that kind of send us money on, you know, we have some folks who contribute once
• 10:03
  a month just as on a regular basis.
• 10:05
  We really rely on that to keep the lights on, to keep, you know, we do have to purchase
• 10:10
  some foods that we aren't able to get donated.
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  So it's really important for us to just on an ongoing basis to have that financial support
• 10:19
  from the community.
• 10:21
  Yeah.
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  And I think I was reading somewhere that the food donations are great.
• 10:32
  But some, really the financial contributions give you an opportunity to be able to do more
• 10:39
  on a whole different level.
• 10:41
  Definitely.
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  And that those really do make a difference.
• 10:44
  Yeah.
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  And it's not just, you know, because it's not just food that we do, we have other programs.
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  As you mentioned, we have the Covenant for Basic Needs where we support people financially
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  in hardship times.
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  So if they are facing a utility shutoff, for example, we have a program that can help
• 11:01
  with that that we financially support.
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  And we have our holiday program.
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  So if we have the wish tree at the Burlington Mall and if there are wishes that aren't
• 11:11
  purchased by the public, we use our funds to purchase them and make sure that all the
• 11:16
  kids are getting their basic needs met as well as, you know, a couple of toys for the
• 11:21
  holiday season.
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  And we do, we do backpacks.
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  We do the lunch program during the summer to feed kids who would normally get free lunches.
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  You know, all kids get free lunches, which is awesome.
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  But this all requires funding.
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  Right.
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  So, yeah.
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  Right.
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  You know, as we were talking, you know, we were looking at, you know, when this podcast
• 11:46
  broadcasts and you start planning for the holidays pretty early.
• 11:53
  We do.
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  We do.
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  Yeah.
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  So, you know, here in, we start in August, September.
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  So we start registering our families in October, but all the planning has to start before that.
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  So we are starting to collect, you know, non-perishable foods for Thanksgiving.
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  And we've already got our turkey allotment all planned ahead of time for Thanksgiving.
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  And you know, our wish tree committee is already has already met and is meeting again next week,
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  actually, because, yeah, this all takes a lot of planning and a lot of collaboration
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  for months ahead of time.
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  On average, and I don't know if you can share this information, but on average, about how
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  many families are you serving for Thanksgiving?
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  So last year, the Thanksgiving program gave out 141 turkey dinners.
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  So what we give, what our program does is we give out a frozen turkey and the sides.
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  So we give out fresh vegetables, fresh rolls and pie, and all the non-perishable, so your
• 13:00
  stuffing mix and your cranberry and stuff like that.
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  We give that out to, we gave that out to 141 families last year.
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  So that was about 350 individuals that were impacted by that.
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  So that's, that's, that was an average year.
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  We've had years where we've, we've had as many as 170 to 180 families come for the Thanksgiving.
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  Only during the pandemic, we had more.
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  But yeah, about an average, 140 to 150 families.
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  That's a lot of dinners.
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  Yeah.
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  So it's a lot of dinners and a lot of coordination to get all that food into one place for them.
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  So yes.
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  Yeah.
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  And I would imagine that you are also meeting volunteers to help with that, sorting all those
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  meals and helping, I don't know, deliveries or, you know, being there to, you know, just
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  box up stuff.
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  Oh yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  This particular effort, the Thanksgiving one requires two days of volunteers prepping
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  and getting ready.
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  I mean, and we have people that sort the donations, check the dates, organize, count things to
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  make sure we have enough.
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  We have people that have to go out and shop if we don't have enough.
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  And then we have, you know, we have to have, we usually have a Cub Scouts group that comes
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  in and sorts the vegetables into bags so that everybody gets the right amount of green beans
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  and et cetera.
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  We have people who actually go around and shop with the families because the families come
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  in to pick out their, what sides they want and things.
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  So our volunteers will go around and shop with them.
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  We have to have all those, you know, thousands of pounds of turkeys that need to get moved.
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  So it's a big coordination, big coordinated effort.
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  And we get a lot of community help from different range of volunteers.
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  We have, you know, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts that help.
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  And we often have a Girl Scouts group that comes in and helps as well.
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  So there's a lot there.
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  A lot of volunteers needed for sure.
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  Are the turkeys don't, I mean, I'm guessing the turkeys are donated.
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  Do you get them like corporations donate or like, where did the turkeys come from?
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  So in years past, we had the Rotary Club in Burlington that used to purchase and donate
• 15:21
  the turkeys.
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  Now we are affiliated with the Greater Boston Food Bank.
• 15:27
  So we're able to get turkeys from them.
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  Some years we haven't been able to get quite enough and so we'll have to purchase some
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  out of donated money.
• 15:36
  But this year I know we have enough turkeys coming from them.
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  But what happens is we get a whole pallet of turkeys sometime in October.
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  We can't store that at the pantry.
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  So Wegmans actually stores the pallet of turkeys for us in one of their freezers for a month
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  until we come and get them.
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  And now the Rotary Club, they still help.
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  They bring their pickup trucks and move all the turkeys for us to the United Church of
• 16:01
  Christ Congregational, which is where the turkey distribution is out of.
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  Because there's also not enough room at the pantry to do all that.
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  So there's a church space that we use.
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  Really does take a community.
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  It does.
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  Takes a village, absolutely.
• 16:17
  Takes a village for sure.
• 16:20
  So all right, well I'm going to pivot a little because we'll talk more about this in a minute.
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  But I wanted to hear more about your journey.
• 16:28
  You know, I checked out your LinkedIn profile and you've worked in food industry, food systems,
• 16:35
  food services in one way or another your entire career from restaurants to catering to food
• 16:41
  market departments and now you're at the people helping people pantry.
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  So my question was, did it feel as though this was the next natural step for you along
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  the way as you have worked with food, your whole career has hunger and food insecurity
• 16:56
  been something sort of you've had a heart for?
• 17:00
  You know, what exactly brought you here?
• 17:01
  Yeah.
• 17:02
  Well, that's very intuitive of you because that's really, you described it very well.
• 17:07
  That's really how it happened.
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  I mean, I've always been passionate about food and cooking and baking and I'm kind of
• 17:13
  a natural manager.
• 17:14
  So every job I've gone to, I've ended up being a manager in some form.
• 17:19
  You know, most recently I was at Wegmans for several years as a department manager.
• 17:24
  And yeah, I, but all this time as I've been working in food service, I was always volunteering
• 17:32
  as one of the coordinators of that Thanksgiving program that we talked about as a volunteer
• 17:37
  through that church, through my church.
• 17:40
  And so when this opportunity came up at people helping people, it was perfect timing for
• 17:46
  me.
• 17:47
  It was actually kind of at the tail end of the pandemic and I had left my job at Wegmans
• 17:54
  because I had my third baby and you know, it was just that the timing was that.
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  So I was just starting to kind of look at going back to work and this opportunity came
• 18:04
  up and I mean, how it couldn't have been more perfect.
• 18:07
  It was like meant to be, you know, I'm able to marry my, my expertise and knowledge in
• 18:15
  food service with my passion for helping people.
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  It really feels right.
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  I've been there, you know, three years now almost and it has still feels right.
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  Feels like this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
• 18:26
  So it's so important.
• 18:28
  I think we spend so much, so many hours of every day working, you know, in our work.
• 18:35
  Yes.
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  And it can be our professional work.
• 18:38
  It can be our parental work.
• 18:40
  It can be, you know, other kinds of work, personal work, but, but it's so important,
• 18:45
  I think, to find purpose because then it's not work work.
• 18:49
  Exactly.
• 18:50
  Yes.
• 18:51
  Right.
• 18:52
  I feel the same way.
• 18:53
  Absolutely.
• 18:54
  Yeah.
• 18:55
  Yeah.
• 18:56
  So you have to, as you're in your role as the senior pantry manager, you, I mean, I've
• 19:03
  seen you, I met you at the, at the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and so you are out there.
• 19:10
  You're out there networking and, you know, you, to, you know, for fundraising purposes
• 19:15
  or to just get the word out, you, you have to, you know, lead community engagement events.
• 19:21
  Do you find that when people approach you to have a conversation that they might not
• 19:27
  fully understand hunger and food insecurity?
• 19:33
  And do you, do you find, as people talk to you, that there's sort of like a poverty stigma
• 19:38
  attached to that?
• 19:40
  Is there a way for us to work on changing those assumptions?
• 19:44
  Yeah.
• 19:45
  I mean, definitely.
• 19:46
  You know, a lot of that kind of goes back to my story and I, and I share it all the time.
• 19:52
  I mean, I share it with my volunteers.
• 19:53
  I share it with people that I'm just meeting.
• 19:56
  You know, I'm really kind of plugged into the nonprofit world now.
• 20:01
  I have a lot of friends at other nonprofits.
• 20:04
  I actually have a collaborative of nonprofits that I started called the Burlington Community
• 20:10
  Collaborative where we meet regularly to kind of share resources and ideas and thoughts
• 20:15
  and just to be able to understand what's going on in the other nonprofits in the area.
• 20:20
  But anyway, you know, there is a stigma and, and I want more people to understand that
• 20:29
  every story is different and that there are so many factors that can lead to someone needing
• 20:35
  assistance and it could be long term.
• 20:39
  It could be that generational like you mentioned earlier.
• 20:43
  And it also could be just one little thing that happened.
• 20:46
  It could be a job loss.
• 20:48
  It could be an illness.
• 20:50
  It could be, you know, somebody passed away, unfortunately.
• 20:55
  And these, these really tough situations happen to regular people all the time.
• 21:01
  And you know, so I, this is another story just real quick, but this was maybe a year
• 21:08
  ago or so.
• 21:10
  We had a client pull into the food pantry and she was driving a nice car, right?
• 21:15
  And there was a technician there, our volunteers, it doesn't phase them.
• 21:20
  They don't judge anyone, but there was a technician there working on something and he started
• 21:26
  talking to everybody about, my goodness, why is this person with this nice car at the food
• 21:32
  pantry that doesn't make any sense?
• 21:34
  How, how dare they?
• 21:35
  And you know, I had to say to him, you don't know what led to this person being here.
• 21:41
  You just don't know her story.
• 21:43
  Maybe she's just borrowing that car from a friend because she might not have her own
• 21:45
  car or maybe she just lost her job and that was the car she was driving.
• 21:50
  Maybe she's working on trading it in or maybe that's the only thing that she has a value
• 21:54
  and she's going to continue to drive it because it's easier.
• 21:57
  You know, maybe she's got kids that she needs to take them to school in that car.
• 22:01
  You just don't know.
• 22:03
  So just don't judge a book by its cover, you know, as they say.
• 22:08
  You can't judge a situation because you don't know the background.
• 22:12
  So that's why with the stigma piece, you know, that's why I'm always making sure that I do
• 22:19
  my best and we do our best as a team to make people feel comfortable coming to the pantry
• 22:25
  because we want them to know that we just treat them as regular people because that
• 22:30
  could be us any day, you know.
• 22:33
  My husband just got laid off from his job.
• 22:35
  So you know, I could technically use the food pantry now based on our income.
• 22:40
  It could happen to anyone.
• 22:43
  So yeah, that's a great question.
• 22:46
  Thank you.
• 22:47
  I hope I covered the whole thing.
• 22:48
  No, I think you did.
• 22:49
  I think that, you know, it goes back to sort of how we started this episode, which is
• 22:53
  about compassion and I think it goes back to, you know, humility, seeing things as they
• 23:00
  are not how I think they should be because you really don't know someone's story.
• 23:08
  So just like you said, you know, food distribution recipients can come from all walks of life.
• 23:14
  I read an article that a pantry manager had written and she wanted to learn how to tell
• 23:19
  the story of hunger in her community, but she didn't want to just focus on like data
• 23:23
  and numbers.
• 23:24
  She wanted to talk about the stories of people in terms of people about people and the stories
• 23:32
  behind their hunger.
• 23:34
  So like you said, I'm guessing you help a variety of families and individuals that
• 23:38
  perhaps folks may be surprised to know utilize the pantry.
• 23:43
  You know, what what are the top of mind?
• 23:46
  Like, you know, what types of folks like who's who's out there in the community using the
• 23:50
  pantry?
• 23:51
  Yeah.
• 23:52
  I mean, there's a wide range of people using the pantry.
• 23:55
  We have, you know, we have a good a good number of our folks are seniors who are on a fixed
• 24:00
  income and they just can't make ends meet with their income.
• 24:05
  We have a lot of families with children that come to the pantry.
• 24:09
  We have we have quite a few people who actually this is a great story that that I've learned
• 24:16
  about recently, one of our volunteers was was previously a pantry client and she told
• 24:24
  me her whole story recently and I was just blown away.
• 24:27
  I had no idea, you know, she's in a successful career now.
• 24:31
  She's remarried since that happened.
• 24:34
  And but she was put in a terrible situation because her husband unfortunately became addicted
• 24:40
  and basically used up all their savings, all the kids money that they had saved even took
• 24:46
  the last of the money out of their safe and stole it, you know, because he he was suffering
• 24:51
  from a terrible addiction.
• 24:53
  And she was left with nothing with two kids to take care of.
• 24:58
  And she had to basically just start at ground zero.
• 25:01
  And she used the pantry for a couple of years until she got back on her feet.
• 25:05
  And now she's, you know, a well known person in our community who has a career that you
• 25:12
  would have never guessed, you know, she's got her feet under her.
• 25:15
  And she's now a volunteer.
• 25:17
  And like I said, I never knew I didn't even know that.
• 25:20
  And I've known her for years.
• 25:22
  So it's really it's it's really amazing.
• 25:25
  Like it's all walks of life.
• 25:27
  It's all people that could be in the situation.
• 25:31
  It could be anyone.
• 25:32
  Yep.
• 25:33
  Yep.
• 25:34
  And those are, you know, those are people that, you know, I can say I I've used a pantry
• 25:38
  before I was recently divorced and I I was running a newspaper magazine company and we
• 25:56
  had to shut down.
• 25:58
  And right when we had to shut down, I was renting an apartment and the landlady it was
• 26:05
  a it was a duplex and her family lived on one side and she lived somewhere else and
• 26:09
  she decided she wanted to move back into the other half of the duplex so she could be close
• 26:13
  to her grandkids and she asked us to move out.
• 26:17
  And so here I was like, you know, now I had to figure out what happens next, you know,
• 26:23
  and I have I had three kids, you know, very young school age kids.
• 26:28
  And I was what do I do now?
• 26:30
  And I had gone to a church in my town at the time and I was talking with the main pastor
• 26:37
  and she's like, oh, we have a pantry here.
• 26:41
  And she literally took me in the back and there was like a scout troop or something having
• 26:47
  a meeting and she shot a shoot them off into another room.
• 26:51
  And she took me to the pantry and she got a bag and she just like started filling it.
• 26:55
  And I was so grateful because in that moment, you know, I was in a really difficult situation
• 27:02
  and I, you know, and I'm and I think do you find because I found in that moment I was
• 27:08
  grateful for the help.
• 27:10
  But I was I felt a little like I shouldn't be here.
• 27:14
  Like I should be leaving this for someone else.
• 27:16
  Like I shouldn't be taking this because, you know, I just was just running a company and
• 27:21
  now I'm, you know, and now I got to find a place to live and I don't have income.
• 27:26
  And I don't, you know, oh yeah, you're not alone in that.
• 27:28
  I hear that all the time.
• 27:30
  Really?
• 27:31
  I mean, I want to note the first sort of first couple of months that I started working at
• 27:37
  the food pantry, a woman came in actually a woman and her boyfriend came in and they
• 27:44
  were living out of their Jeep because they just had suddenly lost everything.
• 27:49
  Both of them lost their jobs.
• 27:50
  It was just, you know, just a compounding set of circumstances and all of a sudden they
• 27:55
  found themselves homeless.
• 27:57
  And she walked in and she was just sobbing because she was coming in asking for help
• 28:02
  and she was like, I'm usually the one helping people.
• 28:05
  I'm usually the one donating and volunteering my time.
• 28:08
  And I just feel really wrong coming in and asking for help.
• 28:12
  And that was that was the first time I remember using that sort of mindset of comforting people
• 28:17
  and saying, we're here for you right now, you know, and maybe down the road when you
• 28:23
  get your feedback under you, you can come and volunteer and you can be the one donating.
• 28:27
  But we're all, we're all in a different place in our life at different times.
• 28:31
  And right now you're the one who needs help and that's why we're here.
• 28:34
  So please like, don't feel bad.
• 28:36
  We have plenty of food to share.
• 28:37
  Please like, let us help you, you know, and I mean the number of tears that have been
• 28:42
  shed in the office at the food pantry for that reason, people feel like that.
• 28:49
  I say the majority of people don't want to ask for help.
• 28:53
  They just they're forced to.
• 28:55
  They have to preserve what they have, you know, sometimes it's it's an actual hunger
• 29:01
  situation where they're really, they really don't know where their next meal is coming
• 29:06
  from.
• 29:07
  But then there's also just the ongoing sort of need like, okay, I need to balance my
• 29:12
  budget and I can't afford food and, you know, SNAP benefits don't have, don't aren't enough
• 29:17
  to cover everyone in my family for the whole month.
• 29:20
  So I need a little bit of supplement to keep the books balanced.
• 29:24
  So there's both, there's both there, you know.
• 29:28
  But yeah, it's it could be anyone and and some people come only a couple times and and
• 29:36
  some people come for years.
• 29:38
  Yeah.
• 29:39
  You know, and that's that's fine, whatever they need, we were there for them.
• 29:41
  I read somewhere some number like 40% of Americans and maybe this was a couple of years ago were
• 29:52
  like one missed paycheck away from like needing assistance.
• 29:58
  Like, yeah, because I think we're in a tough we're we've been in a tough economic environment
• 30:06
  for some time, especially during COVID and so many people lost their jobs and so many
• 30:12
  people were impacted by illness.
• 30:14
  And there was just so much of that.
• 30:16
  And we'll talk in a minute about sort of the actually that's my next question that I in
• 30:22
  addition to that number, I also read that the need for food pantry services during the
• 30:26
  pandemic just was like right through the roof, very sharp rise, like a really significant
• 30:31
  number like 95% of food distribution recipients, there was an increase, you know, for food distribution
• 30:40
  recipients.
• 30:42
  Was was that your experience as well?
• 30:44
  You were there after COVID though, right?
• 30:46
  I was there after COVID but but I know I mean, I, I have heard about how it was and we've
• 30:51
  kept some of the sort of the model of how we operate now.
• 30:56
  Just then but but yes, there was, they had to suddenly pivot and how they operated because
• 31:02
  of social distancing, but then also just that enormous increase in people using the food
• 31:08
  pantry because so many people lost their jobs and so many people were ill.
• 31:12
  And where were the donations coming from?
• 31:14
  With donations also kind of went up at that time too.
• 31:18
  You know, a lot of people who were in a position to be generous were more generous at that time.
• 31:24
  And more grant money came out came out of the woodwork.
• 31:27
  We were able to get some Massachusetts grant money to help us through that time.
• 31:33
  So so that luckily the sort of the community rose with the rose to the challenge in terms
• 31:39
  of getting taken care of people and in at least in that realm, you know, I have no opinions
• 31:43
  about other things that happened at that time.
• 31:46
  But you know, the food pantry in our case was taken care of thankfully, but it was a huge
• 31:52
  effort, you know, a lot of volunteers stepped away because, you know, of fear and not, you
• 31:58
  know, social distancing and not wanting to be there.
• 32:02
  Or they got sick or whatever it was.
• 32:05
  So it was a huge challenge for the staff at the time.
• 32:08
  And in the staff was smaller than it is now.
• 32:10
  So I really feel for for them, it was quite an experience from my understanding.
• 32:17
  But you know, we continue to see the need even increasing now, it's kind of it kind
• 32:23
  of leveled off quite a bit went down significantly as people went back to work and stuff.
• 32:28
  But then we've seen a kind of an increase really gradually, but significantly over the
• 32:35
  last year or so.
• 32:38
  Over a year ago, the COVID era snap benefit increase was was eliminated.
• 32:44
  So that was one factor.
• 32:47
  And yeah, that was probably a year and a half ago now.
• 32:50
  And we definitely see a saw sharp increase in usership when that happened, where people
• 32:57
  had had were brought to the maximum of what their snap benefit could be.
• 33:02
  Just should I explain what snap is just yeah, quick.
• 33:04
  So snap is the is the supplemental nutrition assistance program.
• 33:09
  So it's it's basically what used to be called food stamps.
• 33:13
  So that's what people get to they get from the government if they're within a certain
• 33:17
  income to feed their family.
• 33:20
  And usually it's it's a it's supposed to be supplemental, you know, that's what it's
• 33:25
  called.
• 33:26
  So it's not enough to really buy groceries for your whole family, but it's enough to
• 33:30
  help a little.
• 33:31
  That's why people we encourage people who use snap to also come to the food pantry because
• 33:36
  we're also supplemental.
• 33:37
  So hopefully they can put it all together and have enough.
• 33:42
  But so at the during COVID, the snap benefit was brought up to the maximum for any for
• 33:47
  every family based based on just the family size.
• 33:51
  So they were there were no deductions taken out for whatever they take deductions out
• 33:57
  for now.
• 33:59
  And then back in March of 2022.
• 34:03
  Yeah.
• 34:04
  No, 2023.
• 34:06
  Sorry.
• 34:07
  That that extra COVID benefit was taken away.
• 34:12
  It ended because the emergency was over.
• 34:14
  So then there were a lot of families who had been getting, you know, say $120 a month now
• 34:20
  dropped back down to say $70 a month.
• 34:23
  So that was tough for people.
• 34:25
  So we saw a lot of people kind of register or come back to the pantry at that time.
• 34:30
  And then, you know, since then we've just seen and I and I actually think it's a it's
• 34:34
  a combination of the the the economy being tough right now with cost of goods and things.
• 34:42
  And also word of mouth and just the outreach sort of efforts that we've made because we
• 34:48
  know there's a lot of need out there that wasn't being met before.
• 34:51
  So we've made a big effort in recent probably over the last two years or so to really get
• 34:56
  out into the community.
• 34:58
  As you mentioned, like, you know, the executive director Jim and myself are out networking
• 35:04
  spreading the word that we're there.
• 35:06
  I go to the schools.
• 35:07
  I have a great relationship with Burlington Public Schools.
• 35:10
  So we're we're making sure people know and are referring people to us as needed.
• 35:16
  And so we've seen a lot of increase in usership over the last year or so.
• 35:22
  And yeah, so we're, you know, again, like it's it's just oh and what I was going to say,
• 35:31
  backing up was that because the economy is what it is and it's so hard for people to
• 35:37
  make ends meet, like you said, some people are just one paycheck away from, you know,
• 35:42
  having trouble paying their mortgage or whatever or their rent.
• 35:47
  Our guidelines for using the food pantry, we use the MassGood neighbor energy guidelines,
• 35:53
  which is more closer to actually the median income.
• 35:56
  So a lot of people might not even realize, but they could qualify based on their family
• 36:01
  size to use the food pantry.
• 36:05
  And we so snap benefits, they use a different guideline, they use the USDA guideline, which
• 36:11
  is closer to the it's, I believe, 30 or 40% of the federal poverty limit.
• 36:17
  This is a much higher cap.
• 36:18
  So people who may not qualify for a snap because their income is too high, they still might
• 36:23
  be able to use the food pantry.
• 36:24
  So we're trying to spread the word about that too, because if they're just having trouble
• 36:29
  making ends meet, or they are maybe one paycheck away from losing, you know, their rent or
• 36:34
  their whatever it may be, not being able to make a utility payment, they may be able to
• 36:39
  get help that they don't realize is out there.
• 36:42
  So no, it's great to know because I think you're right.
• 36:45
  I don't think people understand.
• 36:46
  Again, that poverty stigma, I think people just maybe don't understand that it's it's
• 36:52
  not just that's not the only reason that you exist.
• 36:56
  You know, that it's about helping.
• 36:59
  Yes, absolutely.
• 37:00
  Yeah.
• 37:01
  Yeah.
• 37:02
  We had, you know, you have to do a fair amount of community engagement for fundraising and
• 37:08
  to get the word out to potential donors, right?
• 37:12
  And you know, we had recently broadcast another podcast where we were talking about donor and
• 37:17
  fundraising stories and how, you know, nonprofits are constantly looking for innovative ways
• 37:23
  to inspire donors and storytelling has the power to touch hearts and evoke empathy.
• 37:30
  Fundraising storytelling especially is powerful for igniting emotions, fostering connections
• 37:35
  and driving impactful contributions.
• 37:40
  When you are out networking or during engagement events or even guiding volunteers, do you
• 37:48
  have the opportunity to tell stories about the ways that the pantry is making a difference?
• 37:53
  Yeah, definitely.
• 37:56
  You know, I we've definitely sort of over the last couple of years, like I mentioned,
• 38:04
  the executive director, Jim and I have been trying to really work on that fundraising
• 38:10
  piece as far as how to get the messaging out to people.
• 38:14
  And we have started kind of sharing stories more, you know, we have a wine tasting fundraiser
• 38:23
  in February and at the last one, I got up and said a few things and I shared a story
• 38:29
  about one of our clients who had recently removed herself from a domestic abuse situation.
• 38:38
  And you know, I kind of told some details about without any identifying factors, obviously,
• 38:44
  about how she had left everything behind with her two boys and just got out of there, had
• 38:51
  to, you know, disappear from the map and just started at zero.
• 38:58
  And she had come into the pantry after a few months of using the pantry and we'd also given
• 39:05
  her holiday help.
• 39:07
  And she she used the wish tree for her kids is what I mean.
• 39:12
  And she came in and just sat down in the office.
• 39:14
  Could we gotten to know her a little bit at this point?
• 39:17
  We talked to her a lot.
• 39:18
  She's really, really nice lady.
• 39:20
  And she started just tearing up and just said, you guys absolutely saved my life.
• 39:28
  And she wasn't, you know, she was being literal and figurative about that.
• 39:32
  She was like, you know, you fed my kids, you made it.
• 39:36
  So I had a safe space to come to where I could, you know, talk and be be myself and not be
• 39:44
  not feel because she was living in a state of fear at that time.
• 39:50
  And her life had really gotten turned upside down.
• 39:52
  So, you know, I shared that story with with the audience at our fundraiser.
• 39:58
  And that's the kind of thing that we want to do more of because we know that once people
• 40:03
  hear that these are relatable people and individuals, they understand that we need,
• 40:09
  you know, we need donations to support, keep supporting folks because there's going to
• 40:13
  be another person walking in the door next week and the next week and the next week is
• 40:19
  just that that's life.
• 40:21
  And that's just the reality.
• 40:24
  Yeah.
• 40:25
  And messaging, you have to be careful, obviously, because of the identifying information and
• 40:29
  confidentiality and all of that.
• 40:33
  But I think you're right.
• 40:34
  I think being able to humanize what you do instead of just they're just clients, they're
• 40:42
  just recipients, you know, these are real people with these real stories.
• 40:48
  Yeah.
• 40:49
  And these journeys that got them here and that this could be this incredible stepping
• 40:54
  stone for them along the way.
• 40:56
  Yep, definitely.
• 40:58
  I couldn't have put it better.
• 40:59
  So, yeah, for sure.
• 41:01
  Yeah.
• 41:02
  So, you engage with community, other groups, I mean, you know, corporations or donors,
• 41:08
  everyday individuals can be donors, other organizations like scout organizations or,
• 41:13
  you know, other nonprofits or other, you know, church groups and things like that might be
• 41:17
  donors.
• 41:21
  All the types of events that you're doing, which ones do you find are most impactful?
• 41:26
  I know that you have a game show style event coming up very soon.
• 41:32
  So how's the planning going with that?
• 41:34
  Oh, it's good.
• 41:36
  It's going to be a really fun event.
• 41:38
  So we decided we were sort of brainstorming because we had our one big fundraiser each
• 41:44
  year, which was the wine tasting I mentioned.
• 41:46
  And then we would do a couple of sort of smaller ones like raffles and things.
• 41:51
  But we really need to keep with that fundraising cycle every year.
• 41:55
  So we were trying to come up with one for the fall time that would be more community-based.
• 42:01
  So one of our fabulous board members who's been with the board for many, many years,
• 42:09
  Janet, she's awesome, I love her.
• 42:12
  And she came up with this idea.
• 42:13
  She was like, I woke up in the middle of the night and I had this idea in my head.
• 42:16
  And so we just went with it.
• 42:18
  It's called Burlington Feud.
• 42:20
  And the idea is that we want to bring the whole community together.
• 42:24
  So we're bringing in teams from different boards and committees throughout the town.
• 42:31
  Is this going to be like a family feud?
• 42:34
  Yes.
• 42:35
  Oh, OK.
• 42:36
  So it's like family feud.
• 42:37
  And the teams that consist of Burlington sort of people that know, you know, that are
• 42:42
  recognizable in Burlington.
• 42:44
  So we have a team from the police department.
• 42:46
  We have a team from, we have the select board as a team and the school committee.
• 42:50
  So people like that, you know, so recognizable people.
• 42:55
  And they're going to compete against each other.
• 42:58
  And you know, it's just supposed to be a friendly, healthy competition.
• 43:03
  And then there'll be dinner and we have a lot of raffle items.
• 43:06
  So we're hoping that this will be sort of our other big event-based fundraiser, just
• 43:12
  like the wine tasting that we have in February, which is huge and always sells out.
• 43:17
  It's at Cafe Esca Drill, very popular and has been going on.
• 43:20
  I believe this will be maybe our twelfth year doing it.
• 43:23
  Well, eleventh or twelfth, yeah.
• 43:24
  So it's been going on a long time and it's so popular.
• 43:27
  So we're hoping that this one gets to that point too.
• 43:30
  This is our first year.
• 43:31
  So we'll see how it goes.
• 43:32
  I think it's going to be great.
• 43:33
  Well, it'll be fun, I think, because you said it's like a family-focused, family-fun
• 43:37
  one.
• 43:38
  So that's going to be...
• 43:39
  Yes.
• 43:40
  Kids are welcome.
• 43:41
  So that's going to be a family's there.
• 43:42
  Yeah.
• 43:43
  Yeah.
• 43:44
  Absolutely.
• 43:45
  And then they'll be able to see the people they know.
• 43:46
  Do you have any like, do you have any teams from like schools?
• 43:49
  Yes.
• 43:50
  Like teachers coming in today?
• 43:51
  We do.
• 43:52
  We have a Burlington Public Schools team.
• 43:54
  So...
• 43:55
  The kids will definitely recognize those folks.
• 43:57
  Yep, yep, exactly.
• 43:58
  Oh, that's so fun.
• 43:59
  Well, good luck.
• 44:00
  I hope that...
• 44:01
  You know, is the goal...
• 44:02
  You know, and how is that going to work?
• 44:04
  Is it people who participate, bring food donations or financial contributions or something like
• 44:09
  that?
• 44:10
  It's a ticket-based.
• 44:11
  Oh, okay.
• 44:12
  So they'll buy a ticket for the event.
• 44:13
  They get the show.
• 44:14
  They get to see the show and then the dinner is included in the ticket price.
• 44:19
  And then we'll also have raffles to sell so they can buy raffle tickets there.
• 44:24
  And that'll hopefully bring in extra income for the event.
• 44:28
  Nice.
• 44:29
  Yeah.
• 44:30
  Oh, I wish you luck on that.
• 44:31
  That sounds fun.
• 44:32
  Thank you.
• 44:33
  That sounds fun.
• 44:34
  So my hope is that once folks hear this episode that they will be moved to...
• 44:41
  Donate or volunteer.
• 44:43
  If folks wanted to get involved, what should they do?
• 44:48
  The first place to go would be our website, peoplehelvingpeopleinc.org.
• 44:54
  And that's going to show you what volunteer opportunities we have.
• 44:58
  We have a form on our new website, which by this time should be published.
• 45:04
  It's so close.
• 45:08
  And you can fill out the form and kind of indicate what you're interested in doing in
• 45:12
  terms of volunteerism.
• 45:15
  Or you can always make a contribution.
• 45:17
  Of course, we always welcome that.
• 45:19
  Or food donations are also important, non-perishable, unexpired, non-perishable foods.
• 45:24
  We have a donation center at our location at 21 Murray-Avon Burlington that's on a timed
• 45:30
  lock so you can just open the door and go in any time between 7 and 7 every day.
• 45:37
  So we have people that are in and out of there all the time making food donations, which
• 45:41
  is huge.
• 45:42
  And if you're ever wondering what we need, we have a list on our website of what we
• 45:47
  need because we can get certain things from the Greater Boston Food Bank.
• 45:51
  So there are other things that we don't get from them that we ask for from the public.
• 45:56
  So for example, we can often get peanut butter from the Greater Boston Food Bank, but we
• 46:02
  can't get jelly.
• 46:03
  So we ask for jelly, but not peanut butter.
• 46:06
  And we still use the peanut butter that people donate.
• 46:08
  Don't get me wrong.
• 46:09
  We'll gladly accept it.
• 46:11
  But there are just things that if people want to be more intentional about their food donations,
• 46:15
  we have a suggested list on our website.
• 46:18
  Yeah.
• 46:19
  I mean, I would imagine getting lots and lots and lots of something that you already have
• 46:23
  but not getting anything of other things.
• 46:25
  I've also heard that sometimes food pantries need things like toiletries and things like
• 46:32
  toilet paper and those kinds of things too.
• 46:35
  It's not going to just be food.
• 46:37
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 46:38
  We give out toilet paper, tissues, toiletries, and baby products too.
• 46:46
  Diapers are a huge, huge thing in formula.
• 46:50
  And also feminine hygiene products too are another thing that we like to give out when
• 46:55
  we have them.
• 46:56
  Right.
• 46:57
  Well, those are good to know.
• 46:58
  It's good to know.
• 46:59
  So, well, that is all the time we have for today.
• 47:03
  I want to thank you so much for being here and telling your story and really making the
• 47:11
  theme of today about compassion.
• 47:15
  My hope is, like I said, I hope that when folks hear the episode that they will be moved
• 47:19
  to do something to take an action and to help.
• 47:26
  So just thanks again.
• 47:27
  Thanks so much for being here.
• 47:28
  Thank you.
• 47:29
  This was a great conversation.
• 47:30
  I really appreciate it.
• 47:32
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 47:35
  And to our listeners, whether you hear us locally from the BTV studios in Bedford, Massachusetts,
• 47:40
  or across the globe on such podcast channels as Spotify, Apple Podcast, or Amazon Prime,
• 47:46
  thanks for listening.
• 47:47
  We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time.
• 47:50
  Be storytelling.