SALEM — The Salem Pantry and A&J King Artisan Bakers have each found themselves in completely different situations this year.
The Salem Pantry, a non-profit organization that provides food and meals to those in need has been busier than ever.
“Our organization has been doing things similar to what the Salvation Army is doing,” Executive director Robyn Burns said. “All our deliveries are mobile. We work with local schools, Salem State University and the North Shore Community Development Corporation. We’ve seen numbers rise 400 percent since pre-COVID.”
Burns, others from the Salem Pantry and a small group of volunteers strategically expanded the organization’s programs during these uncertain times to try to eradicate hunger in the Salem community.
“We were really small and COVID forced us to grow,” Burns said. “It’s been nice in some ways trying to fill in the local need. We’re getting through the growing pains and we’re learning how to stay this active, even when this is over.”
But A&J Artisan Bakers, a pair of bakeries owned and run by Jackie and Andy King in Salem, found their small business, like many others, at a standstill.
“A lot of customers were asking if there was anything they could do to help,” Andy King said. “But obviously there’s not much they could do when we’re not open.”
As they started to reopen later in the year, Jackie King learned about a national program called Neighbor Loaves. That program partners local mills, bakeries and food pantries to do some good for the community while also helping those businesses stay afloat.
When a customer at King’s is purchasing their products either online or in store they’ll have an option to add a “neighbor loaf” to their order. From there the bakery gets to work baking loaves of bread with locally grown organic grains that will go to the Salem Pantry and end up on the plate of a person in need.
And the program took off, with about 1,250 loaves of bread being handed out as of today.
“It went gangbusters,” King said. “To the point we were overwhelmed. We just kept a tally going and had a huge backlog of Neighbor Loaves to make. We have regular drops and pick ups with the pantry to fill the need and demands.”
Along with helping out the community, the entire program is customer driven and keeps King’s and local mills and farmers functioning during these trying times.
“The fact that it’s entirely customer-driven is exciting,” King said. “This doesn’t exist without the customer participation. Right now, especially, a lot of people are hurting. For a normal customer, throwing on an extra loaf doesn’t seem like a lot, but it really is.”
And for the pantry having a consistent supply of bread, which is often one of the most uncertain items to give out, means everything.
“We try to really give out a whole meal,” Burns said. “Fresh produce, meat, eggs, dairy, canned goods and bread, which is what led to the collaboration. Bread is something that’s hard to predict. We might get donations, grocery stores might donate some expiring product, but some days or weeks they might not. (Neighbor Loaves) has been really timely and strategic.”
Things are still up in the air for A&J King’s bakeries, like many small businesses. Right now Jackie and Andy are hoping for continued customer support as they try to keep their business and the Neighbor Loaves program afloat.
“Over 50 percent of our business was from wholesale,” King said. “Restaurants, bars, coffee shops. I think we’ve seen, how goes small business is how goes the nation. It’s a unique position to be able to help but still being able to help ourselves as business. The jury is still out on how we’re going to make it through. It sounds cliche but we’re taking it day to day. Hopefully this will continue for years to come. We can guarantee we’ll keep doing it as long as we can.”
