COVID-19 Updates
Last updated: May 20th, 2020
We are currently witnessing drastic disruptions to the economy, and the food supply chain on both a global and local level. Large portions of the food industry including manufacturers, restaurants, schools and institutions have made the decision to close or suspend operations, which has stranded large volumes of nutritious food and created tremendous waste upstream. Simultaneously, the need for basic services continues to skyrocket, and many food pantries have been forced to close or operate at reduced capacity as they try to quickly adapt procedures to maintain the safety of their staff, volunteers and clients. Therefore, we have made the decision to jump (safely) into action.
Our response to the COVID crisis is two-fold, taking into consideration the biggest impact we can have in the short and long term. Because many of our distribution partners have seen a more than 60% increase in demand for services, our first priority is to mobilize to get sufficient quantities of perishables to these organizations to meet their needs. This means connecting the dots through a now broken supply chain by providing trucking and logistics support, as well as, packing thousands of boxes of fresh produce weekly for distribution through the USDA's new Farms to Families Program.
Second, we have re-engineered our on-farm gleaning operations for the coming growing season to both protect our staff and volunteers, as well as scale up infrastructure to have the greatest impact. We are anticipating an unprecedented demand in urban areas for food assistance and access to fresh fruits and vegetables for the foreseeable future. For specific information about our short and long term response efforts scroll to the bottom of the page.
Our response to the COVID crisis is two-fold, taking into consideration the biggest impact we can have in the short and long term. Because many of our distribution partners have seen a more than 60% increase in demand for services, our first priority is to mobilize to get sufficient quantities of perishables to these organizations to meet their needs. This means connecting the dots through a now broken supply chain by providing trucking and logistics support, as well as, packing thousands of boxes of fresh produce weekly for distribution through the USDA's new Farms to Families Program.
Second, we have re-engineered our on-farm gleaning operations for the coming growing season to both protect our staff and volunteers, as well as scale up infrastructure to have the greatest impact. We are anticipating an unprecedented demand in urban areas for food assistance and access to fresh fruits and vegetables for the foreseeable future. For specific information about our short and long term response efforts scroll to the bottom of the page.
We feel strongly that the short-term priority must be to provide basic services to those who are in desperate need of assistance right now. Our short term plan has allowed us to mobilize nearly overnight and begin rescuing and distributing tens of thousands of pounds of perishables to our hunger relief community on a daily basis. However, the operational cost of these activities is currently averaging $13,500 per week. While these costs were not accounted for in our operating budget, we believe that this is an extremely worthwhile investment as it allows us to rescue more than 70,000 lbs of food per week that would otherwise go to waste. The average cost of our emergency response efforts per pound of food rescued is $0.19, which reflects many years of hard work spent honing our systems to be extremely efficient, effective and highly adaptable to the current needs of our regional food system.
We are in need of financial support in order to continue our COVID response efforts at this level and to meet the immediate need of our community. Now more than ever we need your support to help us care for our neighbors and our community.
As we continue to refine our systems and scale our operations we will further reduce the cost of each pound of food rescued. We can assure you that the impact of additional funding will be maximized to the greatest extent possible.
We are making every effort to rise to the occasion and serve our food system to the greatest extent possible with our limited resources, while at the same time solidifying plans that will allow us to continue to provide leadership, support and fresh produce to the hunger relief community in a future full of uncertainty. We anticipate resuming on-farm gleaning in July with modified procedures to ensure the safety of our staff, volunteers, and recipients. Gleaning opportunities will be posted as crops become available in late spring / early summer. Our glean team is looking forward to working with you to address hunger through a collaborative and systems based approach. Soon enough we will resume harvesting high quality, nutritious produce and equitably distributing it throughout our communities.
We are in need of financial support in order to continue our COVID response efforts at this level and to meet the immediate need of our community. Now more than ever we need your support to help us care for our neighbors and our community.
As we continue to refine our systems and scale our operations we will further reduce the cost of each pound of food rescued. We can assure you that the impact of additional funding will be maximized to the greatest extent possible.
We are making every effort to rise to the occasion and serve our food system to the greatest extent possible with our limited resources, while at the same time solidifying plans that will allow us to continue to provide leadership, support and fresh produce to the hunger relief community in a future full of uncertainty. We anticipate resuming on-farm gleaning in July with modified procedures to ensure the safety of our staff, volunteers, and recipients. Gleaning opportunities will be posted as crops become available in late spring / early summer. Our glean team is looking forward to working with you to address hunger through a collaborative and systems based approach. Soon enough we will resume harvesting high quality, nutritious produce and equitably distributing it throughout our communities.
Support our response efforts now
Ongoing Short-term COVID Response Efforts:
Long-term COVID Response Efforts:
- Pack and distribute 3,700 boxes of mixed produce per week to fulfill orders as established in our USDA Farms to Families Food Box program contract
- Leverage BAG infrastructure to increase the capacity of our local hunger relief network
- Deploy our current fleet of trucks and drivers to help partner agencies accommodate larger volume of donations
- Rent larger 26ft truck to help orchestrate large donations from the regional warehouses of companies such as Sysco, Dunkin Donuts & Kettle Cuisine, amounting to more than 200,000 lbs
- Provide additional cold storage space to partner organizations who have seen large increases in demand such as Food Link
- Leverage existing connections to source and distribute surplus produce out of the New England Produce terminal
- Assist with local emergency food distribution efforts in areas where food pantries have been forced to close
- Help Healthy Waltham to distribute produce to 600-1,000 local families on a bi-weekly basis through coordinating, aggregating, trucking and assembling individually packaged bags of produce
- Provide necessary ongoing assistance to continue this program
- Help Healthy Waltham to distribute produce to 600-1,000 local families on a bi-weekly basis through coordinating, aggregating, trucking and assembling individually packaged bags of produce
- Provide gleaned produce to organizations producing prepared meals for frontline workers as well as those facing food insecurity
Long-term COVID Response Efforts:
- Collaboration
- Partner with New Entry Sustainable Farming Project to ensure consistent and continued supply of USDA Farms to Families Food Boxes through the end of 2020
- Work with local farmers on crop planning to ensure consistent supply of key produce items to the hunger relief network
- Secure new sales outlets for farmers within the emergency food response system to ensure current production levels and farm viability are protected and maintained
- Investigate potential to collaborate with organizations such as The Greater Boston Food Bank to develop new programming around safely repacking bulk produce items
- Programming
- Secure necessary funding to wave all service and membership fees for partner agencies
- Develop programming to package mixed produce bags for individual households that minimize the management burden on individual food pantries
- Develop new policies and procedures that allow us to safely host volunteers for gleaning trips
- Mobilize to capture large surpluses caused by changes to produce markets
- On-board powerful technology systems that allow us to better facilitate the flow of food despite disruptions to the supply chain
- Infrastructure & Facilities
- Negotiate long-term lease for larger 26ft truck to ensure continued capacity to transport large donations of over 10,000 lbs year round
- Invest in secondary facility with loading docks that is capable of accommodating tractor trailer loads of donated perishables and improved packing infrastructure
- Explore opportunities to utilize facilities that are not currently in use due to COVID disruption as additional warehouse and packing space