NAHANT — A farmer’s market-style food program is helping feed local veterans in Nahant with fresh produce, eggs, and other groceries each month.
Rather than relying solely on canned and shelf-stable foods, the program through the Greater Boston Food Bank supplies fresh foods like vegetables and eggs for more than 600 agencies in Eastern Massachusetts.
The food bank started its efforts in 2011, and the American Legion Post 215 in Nahant caught wind of it five years later. With a large veteran population, the town wanted to get involved to serve those who provided for the country, Anna Manzano, a veteran and American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) member, said.
“When our Legion found out about the availability of having a food pantry, they decided to go ahead and set it up with Legion members initially and then Auxiliary members, and now the rest are town volunteers who step in,” Manzano said.
The process involves far more than simply handing out groceries. Volunteers load heavy bags of vegetables, frozen foods, and shelf-stable items into trucks before distributing them to veterans.
“We pick it up behind the Revere Town Hall, and the big 53-foot truck shows up, and there’s five different, six different communities (involved),” Lisa Mogan-O’Keefe, an American Legion Auxiliary volunteer, said. “We all have our lists of food of how much to get and we pack it all up in our individual trucks.”
To physically load the bags out of the huge truck and into the smaller trucks can be taxing, but it provides a sense of pride knowing the food will be used by those who need it, Mogan-O’Keefe shared.
“It’s definitely a workout,” Mogan-O’Keefe said. “These bags are like 40 pounds each, you know? But it’s rewarding.”
The Nahant volunteers help more than just their community. When needed, they aid others in loading their trucks, Mogan-O’Keefe said.
“Trust and believe the orders are heavy… but we finished our order early, and then the guy from Lynn and Swampscott wasn’t there yet, so we got his order ready because it’s the same as ours,” Mogan-O’Keefe said. “Then we helped the Chelsea guys because their order is huge.”
Once the orders are filled, the trucks go to their designated market areas, like the Nahant Life Saving Station, Mogan-O’Keefe said. Volunteers help open the garage where food is placed on tables and organized into individual bags, she added.
“This started during COVID, actually,” Manzano said. “Before that, we had all the food on tables, and people could come and do their own shopping, pick out what they wanted and stuff, but then when COVID came, we realized we couldn’t do that. So, we decided to put all the food in bags.”
All kinds of reusable bags have been used and consistently returned by veterans who receive food. Even big-box stores like Market Basket provide excess bags with handles so participants and volunteers have an easier time loading them into cars, Mogan-O’Keefe mentioned.
“Everybody seems to like it this way, so I guess that’s the way we’ll keep it,” Manzano said.
This month’s order included the basics of dry spaghetti, canned tomato sauce, canned fruit, peanut butter, shelf-stable milk, plantains, and a new produce item… radishes, Manzano shared.
A lot of veterans have given feedback to the volunteers who aid in providing a healthy service, sharing that, being on fixed incomes, receiving the donations can be an extra stepping stone to having access to healthy food for free, Manzano said.
“Even for communities like Nahant and Swampscott, where you kind of assume everybody’s well-to-do, there’s still a lot of people that are in need,” Manzano said. “So those are the ones that you’ll see coming here, but you’ll also see people that just have difficulty getting to the store, or just certainly can use a little assistance.”
At the end of the market hours, if some of the food has not been picked up, it’s brought to the Nahant Council on Aging center, Mogan-O’Keefe said.
The Assistant Director at the Council on Aging, Ann Callahan, drove up to the market in a pickup truck, loading bag after bag into the truck bed. With the food that they take from the market, they provide a healthy and fresh lunch for seniors who join the weekly lunch service, and then the seniors get to take home a bag of food as well, Callahan said.
“Our surplus goes to our senior center because they also service veterans there,” Mogan-O’Keefe said. “Then what we don’t use and what they don’t use does not get wasted; it goes to LEO in Lynn because they’re also part of the Greater Boston Food Bank.”
Leading through Empowering Opportunities (LEO) has a basic needs (food and rent) program that provides monthly food donations for income-eligible seniors in the Lynn area. The program, more focused toward the elderly than veterans, differs from the Nahant Legion’s program by requiring income documentation, according to the LEO website.
The importance of caring for the town’s veterans is deeply rooted in the community engagement in Nahant.
“We do love our veterans, and we think we take care of them the best we can,” ALA President Esther Johnson said.
Johnson shared that this is one of the main purposes of the ALA in the community.
“This is what we’re supposed to be doing, is to help veterans,” Johnson said. “This is one of the most important things we do other than the most important thing for me… when a veteran passes away, and we serve as an arm of God with the Legion at graveside or sometimes memorials.”
To Manzano, it ties directly to her sense of humanity, and helping those who have given so much of themselves to serve more than just their community.
“Nobody lives on this little island that we call Earth by themselves,” Manzano said. “So we have to help each other out, you know, everybody needs a hand.”
For first-time volunteer Michelle Lawlor, the experience was eye-opening in seeing the amount of support the community provides for one another.
“It was a very humbling experience to see how it all works, and seeing the different communities coming together… it’s pretty awesome,” Lawlor said. “I think it’s a special thing that happens here in town, and I think everybody should be involved in it.”
The Veterans Mobile Food Market is held the first Wednesday of every month. More information can be found on the Nahant website, nahant.org
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
Photo: Spenser Hasak | Purchase this photo
