Merrimack Valley Food Bank

The zucchini is coming in fine, and in a few days will be ready to harvest. The tomatoes are starting to come in, slowly but surely. The potatoes and onions are looking as healthy as ever. Most impressive, however, is the lettuce and squash. They have exploded with life, generating huge early yields.

Which means I had a lot to give to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

The goal for this year was to use this garden to help feed those in need, so most of the produce will be going to the Food Bank. Yesterday was the first delivery. For those who don’t know, a food bank is a middleman between those who want to donate food and those who need it. They take huge donations in food and distribute them to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc.

The Merrimack Valley Food Bank also runs a variety of other programs to combat the struggle of hunger, such as:

• Food Distribution Program operates a food distribution center where member agencies select nutritious, ethnically appropriate food two days a week to be distributed to low-income individuals and families.
• Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP) distributes food purchased by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to member agencies serving low-income individuals and families.
• Emergency Food Assistance Program (USDA/TEFAP) distributes food purchased by the federal government to qualified member agencies serving low-income individuals and families. The USDA program provides large quantities of nutritious food through the federal government’s bulk purchases.
• Guy Francesschelli Food Rescue Program - MVFB operates a 16-foot refrigerator truck that picks up prepared and perishable foods from area supermarkets three days a week and delivers the food directly to pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in Greater Lowell and Lawrence free of charge.
• Nutrition and Safe Food Handling Education Program provides valuable information to our member agencies regarding safe transportation, storage, and handling of food.
• Mobile Pantry Program is a community-based health and nutrition service program that delivers groceries to homebound, low income elderly and disabled people in greater Lowell.
• Summer Lunch Program provides an average of 7,000 nutritional lunches to low-income children in Lowell in conjunction with sponsored activities.
• Community Market - a seasonal program (July - November) offering fresh, locally grown produce to low-income Lowell residents of a specific neighborhood.
• Operation Nourish is a pilot program starting in September 2011 that provides supplemental food to pre-K through 4th grade students at a Lowell school for weekends and school vacations when they are not in school to receive free and/or reduced lunch and breakfast.

Click here to visit the Merrimack Valley Food Bank's website. Here, there is information about how you can donate to the Food Bank personally, whether with money, time, or food.