In the pandemic, safety net expanded to meet food needsDate: 12/23/2021 WESTERN MASS. – In introducing a report by the Pioneer Valley Data Collaborative titled “Safety Net, Food & Hunger in the Pioneer Valley,” Molly Jackson-Watts, a principal planner with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said data is important.
“Anecdotal information is available, but the impact of the pandemic has not been felt equally across all sectors. It’s important to measure and keep track of where the recovery is happening well, and where we need to readjust community strategies,” she said.
Jackson-Watts was speaking via Zoom on Dec. 7 to over 50 emergency food and service providers across Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties – the “safety net” referenced in the report’s title. She said the work of the data collaborative has shifted in the past couple of years to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people and economies in the Pioneer Valley. The first report was on the pandemic’s impact on the labor market and employment. Both reports and a recording of the Dec. 7 Zoom call may be found at www.pioneervalleydata.org.
PVPC data analyst Douglas Hall said a lot of the data on food insecurity comes from the Food Bank of Western Mass. and Feeding America, a national non-profit agency working to end hunger in the United States. Feeding America estimates that each of the three counties saw substantial increases in food insecurity in 2020, which grew 42 percent in Hampden County, 45 percent in Hampshire County and 40 percent in Franklin County, compared to 2019.
In response, Hall said, the regional safety net has come together to help families weather the economic challenges that have accompanied the pandemic. He noted in particular one program operated through the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), as well as the food distributed throughout the region by the food bank.
Use of SNAP benefits, one of the largest government programs that helped people through the pandemic, spiked in all three counties. As of August 2021, the usage rates are higher than at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Hall said reflects a continuing ongoing need of families in the region.
In Westfield, the number of SNAP clients increased from 5,368 in May of 2019 to 6,291 in May of 2020, a 17 percent increase. Westfield’s population is about 40,000.
In Southwick, the percentage increase was even higher at 24 percent, with clients increasing from 619 to 768 from May 2019 to May 2020. Southwick has about 8,000 residents.
Hall said the percentage increase was smaller in towns and cities of higher need, such as in Holyoke, where the baseline was already high. Holyoke saw a percentage increase of only 12 percent, but the gross number of people served was much higher than in Westfield – 14,228 in May 2019 and 16,005 in May 2020 – despite a slightly smaller municipal population.
The Hilltowns also gained in SNAP clients during the pandemic, showing a 20 to 30 percent percentage increase in numbers of clients. For example, Chester SNAP clients increased from 124 to 150 from May 2019 to May 2020, a 21 percent increase; while Russell increased from 148 to 180 during the same time period, an overall 30 percent increase.
Hall said SNAP is one of the most responsive government programs to changes in the economy and in individual families, and helped to offset families’ loss of a free meal for schoolchildren during remote learning by giving out the maximum benefit to clients during the pandemic. He said the SNAP program has now shrunk, and is not as effective.
Christina Maxwell, director of programs at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, said the increase in SNAP benefits was incredibly helpful, along with the boosts in unemployment assistance, and the schools and pantries that gave out food.
“These programs do make a difference, and they make a difference really quickly,” she said, adding that the monthly child tax credit benefits being paid to families are now being put to use to buy food and clothing and put gas in cars, “really basic necessities they need in their lives.”
The Food Bank distributes food to 170 member agencies, such as food pantries, throughout Western Massachusetts, the three Pioneer Valley counties plus Berkshire County. The agency also has several direct-distribution programs it runs itself, including the mobile food bank and the brown bag program through the senior centers.
Maxwell said the food banks counts the number of clients and pounds of food distributed, and then use a formula to translate that into the equivalent number of meals. She said during the first 12 months of the pandemic, the food bank distributed 24 percent more food, giving out a total of 12 million meals, which she called “a really huge increase.”
Maxwell said the overall trend during the pandemic was a huge spike in the number of people who needed help putting food on their tables.
“When COVID started, everything shut down, and a lot of people lost their jobs. People needed help very quickly after things went south, and started showing up at the pantries,” she said, adding, “A lot of the folks coming to ask for help never needed emergency food in the past. One-third had never been to a meal site before.”
Maxwell said bringing in enough food over the past two years has been a major undertaking for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
“Our warehouse is quite small compared to the food we need right now,” she said, adding that is why the Food Bank is building a new warehouse in Chicopee.
The Food Bank also needed to accommodate every pantry and meal site that had to change its distribution model. She said it was lucky it was springtime when everything shut down in March of 2020, but it was a big disruption to pantries and meal sites which in many cases had fewer volunteers than normal, because most of the volunteers, who are seniors, were staying home.
Maxwell said the Food Bank lost a lot of volunteers, as did every agency across the region.
“We had to think a lot about how to support those changes in our agencies,” she said, adding that one way they were able to help was by increasing funding grants to agencies, which they were able to do thanks to increased donations. These grants helped to pay for outdoor structures and heaters, carts, to-go containers and PPE supplies.
“We were able to give our agencies quite a lot of funding to purchase those things that were needed," Maxwell said, adding that most of the credit needs to go to the pantries and food sites that are getting the food to families, and having to make the adaptations. “I can’t give our agencies enough credit for the work they did to keep operating. Some of them didn’t close for a minute; some did for a week, just to change over operations. They were heroic," she said.
Overall, Maxwell said that the number of people that the Food Bank is serving has closely tracked the amount of direct aid provided by the federal government.
“When the check goes out, the number of people we’re serving goes down,” Maxwell said. “When benefits sunset, we started to see the number of people we were serving go up. It was a real-world example of the efficacy of government benefits in putting food on tables.”
The Food Bank lobbied heavily at the state and federal levels to help pantries with funding, PPE supplies, and flexibility in the USDA regulations. Maxwell credited the success of that effort to the Food Bank’s relationships with the Western Massachusetts delegation on Beacon Hill.
“That partnership is continuing, and we’ve been very grateful for that,” she said, adding that it’s not the case in every state, so they don’t take it for granted.
Maxwell ended by asking the group on the call two questions. First: How do they leverage the attention that food insecurity received during the pandemic to effect long-range solutions.
“These issues existed very much before the pandemic started, but got pushed in everybody’s face. Attention is being paid to these issues on a scale that they’ve never been before,” she said, adding, “We need to remind people that people are hungry and face other challenges every day. The pandemic was a crisis on top of a crisis that already existed.”
The second question Maxwell asked was how to continue the collaborations and cooperation that have been going on during the pandemic.
“It’s spectacular to see some of the organizations that have come together to address challenges,” she said, adding that it would be a shame if those partnerships and collaboration went away.
Jackson-Watts agreed that it was inspiring to hear the ways that the Food Bank and its networks stepped up to meet the moment with such little preparation.
“Those questions you’ve just finished with are the same questions we’ve been asking,” she said.
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