HOLYOKE — A new “cupboard” sets out this week to help more Holyoke residents cope with food insecurity.
The Holyoke Community Cupboard will open Wednesday at 164 Race St. in Holyoke, from 10:30 a.m. until noon.
The new program will operate in a downtown area identified as a food desert.
Lee Drewitz, director of program operations at the United Way of Pioneer Valley, said the cupboard set up downtown to address the area’s high concentrations of poverty, low family incomes and limited transportation.
“A food desert is a place where there is limited access to supermarkets or food markets, within walking distance,” he said.
The new Holyoke food pantry is a partnership involving Holyoke Community College, the HCC Culinary Arts Institute and United Way of Pioneer Valley.
The cupboard is part of a wider effort to target what officials see as rising food insecurity. Other Community Cupboards recently opened in Chicopee and Springfield.
The new locations stem from a 2020 United Way survey that found food resources to be the biggest need listed by its agency partners, who are seeing an 500% increase in foot traffic, he said.
“In general, food insecurity has increased tremendously over the last year,” Drewitz said.
Reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and inflation caused the dramatic uptick in food insecurity, he said.
The Springfield food program now sees about 200 walk-in visitors a week, while the Chicopee Cupboard is getting about 130 walk-ins. Drewitz expects the program’s Holyoke store traffic to be comparable to Chicopee.
According to Project Bread, a U.S. Household Pulse Survey suggests food insecurity rates in the state are approaching pandemic-era heights.
Prior to the pandemic, the survey reported, household food insecurity in the state was at 8.2%. At the pandemic’s peak, that number rose to 19.6%.
Located within the HCC Arts Culinary Institute building, the new cupboard is an example of nonprofit organizations working in tandem to serve the community.
The United Way and HCC intend to use the Culinary Arts Institute space to explore and develop solutions to food insecurity, officials said in a press release.
The opening of the Holyoke Community Cupboard comes after Margaret’s Pantry in Holyoke put out a community call for donations amid rising food prices.
Brenda Lamagdeleine, manager of Margaret’s Pantry, previously said that organization is serving almost double the number of families each day, going from a range of 25 to 30 families daily before to 40 to 60 families each day now.
New food coalition
In an October meeting, the city’s Ordinance Committee voted unanimously to recommend establishing a Holyoke Food Coalition.
The ordinance aims to identify innovative policies and programming to improve the Holyoke food system.
The coalition will be made up of seven members, but no more than 15, who will be appointed by the mayor for terms of three years.
The board will consist of local officials from the Board of Health, the Food Justice Organization, the Holyoke public schools’ food service director, a local restaurateur, an agricultural manufacturer and food health care advocate, among others.
The creation of a Holyoke Food Coalition is scheduled to be voted on at the next City Council meeting in November.
