QUINCY, MA – It doesn’t sound like much. The South Shore YMCA’s Germantown Neighborhood Center recently purchased a new refrigerator and freezer, thanks to a capacity expansion grant from the Greater Boston Food Bank.
Big deal, right? Well, consider these thoughts. The Germantown Neighborhood Center is home to a food pantry, one that annually serves thousands of local individuals and families. Food is gathered from many partners, from supermarkets to corner stores to church groups. A larger refrigerator and freezer mean that more food can be stored longer. In turn, that means that the Y staff can redouble their efforts to gather more food, to ensure that even more people are moved away from the term “living with low food security.” Without food worries, focus can shift to job searches, caring for other family members, school work, and more.
Then, consider the gardens. In the past two years the Germantown Neighborhood Center has been ringed with vegetable gardens. The space is precious, small pockets of green in a sea of asphalt, but the gardens are remarkably productive. Thanks to enhanced refrigeration capacity, more of those fresh fruits and vegetables are staying fresher longer, meaning that more truly fresh produce – right out of the ground, off the vine and off the plant from all South Shore Y gardens, including those in Hanover and Norwell – is available through the food pantry.
Think, too, about the mobile food pantry. The Y’s mobile operations reach the people in Quincy who, for whatever reason, cannot reach the food pantry at the center. With more fresh food to share, delivered in coolers and on a rolling cart that were purchased through a previous Greater Boston Food Bank capacity expansion grant, the Germantown staff has the ability to bring food to places where it’s needed most.
And then, there’s the teaching kitchen. In collaboration with the City of Quincy and numerous corporate partners, the Germantown staff opened its new teaching kitchen in August 2017. Here, youths, seniors and everybody in between have been learning how to use the fresh vegetables and fruits pulled from the garden in nutritious recipes. The goals stretch from teaching kids to make simple meals to ease stress on working parents to encouraging healthy eating habits that will help people wean themselves off medications for high cholesterol and other conditions. More fresh food available to the staff means that more people are given the opportunity to change the direction of their health through proper nutrition.
So, a new fridge and freezer? To the staff at the Germantown Neighborhood Center, they are a big deal, and so much more.
The South Shore YMCA is a charity serving the communities of Quincy, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Braintree, Milton, Hingham, Hull, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell, Hanover and beyond. Financial Assistance is a Y community benefit available to all families in need, applicable to all Y programs and services. To learn more about the South Shore YMCA, visit www.ssymca.org.