Providing for the people of Lowell

When the COVID-19 crisis began, there was an immediate increase in food insecurity and a need to get more food to more people. At The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) we helped create new food distributions with partners we hadn’t worked with before, at places like the Greater Lowell Family YMCA.

“We were in a position through being closed due to COVID to support the community in any way possible, so this was a perfect opportunity for us,” said Katherine Davis, senior program director for the Greater Lowell Family YMCA. “We had the space and staff and eagerness to make a meaningful impact in this time of need.”

We helped the YMCA hold eight Mobile Markets during the summer—its first-ever food distributions. Each week we delivered the food and volunteers at the YMCA would unpack, sort and box it, so it could be safely given to people in a contactless drive-through distribution. Davis said about 350 families were given nutritious food each week.

“Talking with the families each week, it seemed as though this was the first experience with food insecurity for many families,” Davis said.

In the past 12 months, we’ve distributed over 1.1 million pounds of food to our eight partner agencies in Lowell. Your generous gift is helping us make a deep impact in places like Lowell and put food on the table for the more than 650,000 food-insecure people in Eastern Massachusetts.