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Date: 5/12/2021
CHICOPEE – The Farmers to Families Food Box program was created as an emergency relief effort to respond to market disruption during COVID-19. It helped many families across the country receive boxes of farm-fresh foods provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Locally, these boxes are distributed every Saturday at the Eastfield Mall. Lisa Hager and Karen Hannsman now work to distribute any leftover food boxes to Chicopee residents in need.
According to Hannsman, Bob “The Bike Man” Charland helps at the Eastfield Mall distribution each week. Involved heavily with local philanthropy, Charland wanted a way to take any leftover boxes and make sure they didn’t go to waste.
“They needed a way to get rid of them. So he delivers them all over the place, even to shelters in Greenfield and stuff like that, but he had a hard time finding a connection in Chicopee initially. He tries to hit as many communities as possible and so I asked Lisa if she would want to take on part of it,” said Hannsman.
Weekly, Charland now brings leftover boxes to Hannsman’s house in Chicopee Center, where her and Hager work to divide them up to those in need.
According to Hager, each Wednesday and Friday she posts in as many Chicopee Facebook forums as possible to see who needs a free box of food. Those interested are able to sign up through a spreadsheet and can pick up a box on Saturday or have it delivered to them by Hager and Hannsman.
“The purpose of this is getting the food to people who can’t make the pick up,” said Hannsman. “Anybody that wanted to ensure that they would get a box of food is better off signing up through the Eastfield Mall location, if they’re able to get there, because it guarantees that they’ll get a box. We’re only getting the overage boxes because they [the USDA] usually do send more than people have signed up for.”
Hannsman said that the most boxes they have delivered to people in one day was 60. Each box contains fresh food that varies each week depending on what the USDA provides. Examples of some frequent items include a bag of potatoes, carrots, apples, oranges, cheese, yogurt, cooked meat, sour cream, hot dogs, chicken franks and a gallon of milk.
Hager and Hannsman have also teamed up with Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen.
“We now partner with Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen. They’re nice enough to give us their bread, they always get extra bread from the local suppliers, so we’re able to supplement the boxes with whatever bread I can get from Lorraine’s,” said Hannsman. “They’re also happy that we’re doing this because they also aren’t able to deliver. It’s getting to be a good routine and really nice.”
The Farmers to Families Food Box program is scheduled to end May 31. However, it has been extended many times in recent months.
“We don’t know if it will be getting extended again, at this point,” said Hannsman.
Hager said that the response from those receiving the boxes has been extreme gratitude. Hannsman said that they thought distributing these extra boxes to Chicopee residents was important in helping make sure people had access to fresh food.
“We could just leave it to Lorraine’s, but, you know, there’s always going to be those people that don’t know about going to Lorraine’s or don’t know about going to the Eastfield Mall and maybe we can catch them through posting on a forum or following up with them directly,” she said. “It’s also nice to be able to reach people who don’t usually want to get in the way of other people getting help when they deserve it too.”
Both Hager and Hannsman said that when the Farmers to Families program ends they are unsure if they will continue making boxes on their own. They plan on waiting for an announcement about any extension and then deciding what to do.
Hager said that the demand for these boxes does show the need for food access and maybe even a delivery service within the city.
“It does show that there might be some call for a delivery service in the city for the people who simply don’t have the wherewithal to get to Lorraine’s or some of these other places or maybe people who are in the Center who don’t have transportation. So, maybe after this is over, it might be a good idea for the city, or Lorraine’s or talking to somebody to see about getting a food delivery service of some sort,” said Hager.
Those interested in learning more about the Chicopee Food Boxes are encouraged to visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Chicopee-Food-Boxes-101659572020674.