LYNN — A number of organizations throughout the city have stepped up to provide free groceries and meals to those in need throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, which has sparked the need for a more centralized food distribution service.
With that in mind, Mayor Thomas M. McGee has announced the formation of a Food Security Task Force, which will work to centralize the ongoing work throughout the city and identify existing gaps to better address food insecurity during the pandemic.
Established last week, the task force will be led by Norris Guscott, director of the Lynn Food and Fitness Alliance, and Carolyn Cole, director of the Downtown Lynn Cultural District.
“The Food Security Task Force will centralize the current food distribution services in the city and identify the existing gaps.” said McGee in a statement. “Recognizing that the community’s needs will continue to grow, the task force will work together to fill those needs through policy creation, funding, and programming through the future phases of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
“I would like to thank our City Council, the Salvation Army, LEO and the many community organizations that have been working to address the food security issues in the city of Lynn. We are living in a difficult situation and I am proud to see that Lynners have stepped up to help their fellow neighbors.”
Cole said the idea for the task force was sparked partly by a pilot program, “Food for Thought” that she had taken over coordinating in the past several weeks, which she was hoping would spur into a larger effort.
“Food for Thought” is centered around serving residents who can afford to purchase groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or other benefits, but are unable to leave their homes because they have a disability or are immunocompromised, Cole said.
The program would be focused on assisting those residents and making the food system more accessible. Other efforts would be to centralize a database that could connect the city to available resources and support local farms and other local food producers to mitigate the impact of food resources drying up, Cole said.
“I think it could be really unique to Lynn going forward and can only be expanded with the formation of this task force,” said Cole. “I think the establishment of this was smart because we all know that food is going to be a longstanding issue long before this is over. It lends (itself) to sort of the community we have, being resilient and knowing how to be adaptable and change focus and service our community wherever needed.”
The Task Force will remain in place after the pandemic, but right now, the focus is on COVID-19, which has created a crisis for food and exacerbated a lot of the city’s ability to provide aid, Guscott said.
Guscott said there’s been some great work undertaken by city officials and community organizations to provide and deliver food to needy residents, but the task force will be able to redirect some of those efforts, based on where the need is.
“Sometimes you have folks that are doing the same things,” said Guscott. “It’s about taking stock of what’s happening and powering those aid organizations that are doing the work (by) stringing everyone together.”
Guscott said the task force will look at how to keep resources in the food chain, which are becoming slim. With a decade of experience in the field, Guscott said he intends to take advantage of his contacts in Boston to keep that supply chain moving.
Even with the increase in community efforts centered around food distribution throughout the outbreak, Guscott said there’s a “sizable” number of Lynn residents who are not getting the food they need.
“I know for a fact that there is a piece of Lynn residents that are experiencing heavy food insecurity,” said Guscott. “I reached out to Lynn Community Health Center and they’re saying their patients are experiencing this. We need to figure out how and why, what resources we already have and how we can adjust to the new way of life because COVID is going to be around for awhile.”
One of the greatest needs he sees right now is making fresh fruits and vegetables available for people in need. Food distribution sites tend to offer sandwiches and non-perishable foods, but are lacking in that healthier fare, Guscott said.
However, Guscott said transportation remains the largest issue, in terms of getting food to the most vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and disabled.
Another problem created by the virus has been the vast job loss stemming from the economic shutdown — more people can’t afford to eat, which feeds back into food insecurity, he said, noting that history has shown that anything that impacts economics will impact access to food.
“It’s not necessarily one problem, but crops of problems that tend to correlate with what’s going on economically at the time,” said Guscott. “I give a lot of praise and recognition to the mayor for recognizing that food has always been an important issue and I really appreciate that this task force was created.”
