Greater Boston Food Bank grant helps expand South Shore YMCA Food Pantry

The South Shore YMCA recently received a generous grant of $3,039 from the Greater Boston Food Bank, funds that will expand the capacity of the Germantown Neighborhood Center’s Food Pantry to serve the needs of the Quincy community. The grant will be used to purchase two pieces of needed equipment, a new freezer and a back-up generator.

“Refrigerators and freezers reach the ends of lifecycles,” said Katelyn Szafir, Branch Executive of the Hale Family YMCA, overseeing the Germantown Neighborhood Center, “especially when used in a food pantry. We’re truly appreciative of this grant. It fills an immediate and specific need and allows us to move forward with the important work of feeding our community.”

According to the Greater Boston Food Bank’s 2023 Annual Statewide Report Opportunities to Improve Food Equity and Access in Massachusetts: Ending Hunger Together, “During 2022, food insecurity remained high in Massachusetts with approximately 1.8 million adults reporting household food insecurity, or 33% of the state’s population. Many people struggle with food insecurity chronically, with one in three individuals reporting running out of food or not having enough money to get more food every month.” Post-pandemic food price surges, among other factors, have kept food insecurity levels high for Massachusetts residents. According to the report, 54% of new pantry users in 2022 in Massachusetts reported “increased cost of groceries” as the reason why they did so.

The generator will solve another problem. With larger, more frequent and more powerful storms over the past decade, the chances of losing power at the food pantry, a renovated church, have increased. “A generator kicks in that automatic power backup that will keep our refrigerators and freezers running until storms abate,” said Szafir. “It’s a simple move on our part, but it could save hundreds of pounds of food the next time a major storm hits. We thank Greater Boston Food Bank for believing in our vision and providing us with the funds to make this important purchase.”

The Germantown Neighborhood Center Food Pantry is in need of volunteers to sort, bag, and distribute food as we fight food insecurity in our community. To volunteer or for more information, contact Kathy Quigley at kquigley@ssymca.org.