LYNN — Just since March, the Lynn Salvation Army has gone from feeding around 70 families a day to around 500. The organization has been able to do “10 times more in a short period of time” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gov. Charlie Baker said he admires that.
Because of its success, Baker used the Salvation Army on Franklin Street Wednesday as a stage to announce roughly $3 million in grants targeting food insecurity in Massachusetts during the pandemic.
Baker praised the organization for having distributed more than 1.8 million meals locally in the last 150 days.
“For all the folks here today, especially from the Lynn Salvation Army, I just want to say God bless you and thank you for all that you do,” Baker said.
The Salvation Army as a whole has distributed more than 8 million meals statewide, Baker said. The governor used the opportunity to outline the latest grants to combat food insecurity.
“This new funding is a $3 million investment in the infrastructure we need to continue to respond to the impacts of the pandemic, while creating a system that provides more equitable access to nutritious, local food in the Commonwealth,” Baker said.
According to a statement from Baker’s office, the grants announced Wednesday are the first wave of the $36 million Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program announced in May to bolster Massachusetts’ food system and ensure access to healthy and local food during the pandemic.
Specifically, $2,941,838 is invested in 26 grant recipients to fund improvements in technology, equipment, increased capacity, and other areas to help food producers and distributors reach more food-insecure people.
In addition to the grants, 39 new vendors were added to the state’s Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), a $5 million effort that will add HIP vendors in areas “most significantly impacted by the pandemic, including communities of color and older adults, serve areas designated as food deserts or low-access areas, and reach (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) client populations disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.”
On the North Shore, the Salem Pantry received $128,000 for a new food storage warehouse.
According to Baker, recipients were chosen based on “equity, economic impact and need, sustainability and scalability of efforts, and ability to support producer readiness to accept SNAP and HIP benefits.”
Darren Cyr, Lynn City Council president, also spoke about the way organizations in Massachusetts, such as the Salvation Army, have been working to ensure food security from the start. He said the Lynn Salvation Army has served families in Swampscott, Nahant, Saugus, Chelsea, and Lynnfield, in addition to Lynn residents.
“Four months ago when this whole pandemic started, we knew there was going to be a problem (with food insecurity),” Cyr said.
Salvation Army Major Marcus Jugenheimer said the Salvation Army in Lynn is one of the four “core community centers” of the organization in Massachusetts. It’s obvious to see the need for the organization’s food distribution program on weekday mornings, when “anyone who has driven by has seen the line of cars,” Jugenheimer said.
Applications are still being accepted — through Sept. 15 — for additional grants through the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program, and producers, processors, distributors, nonprofits, urban farms, community gardens, emergency food programs, school meals programs, and other operations within the Massachusetts food system may apply at www.mass.gov/service-details/food-security-infrastructure-grant-program.
Baker also announced an online “decision tree,” available at www.mass.gov/findfoodhelp, to help residents determine which food insecurity programs they may be eligible for.
