This food program, born amidst Covid, is still delivering the goods

By Ethan Hartley
Posted 3/29/23

With food insecurity rising amid increasing inflation, a mobile food pantry program from the East Bay Community Action Project that began in Warren is appearing more and more useful to other communities.

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This food program, born amidst Covid, is still delivering the goods

Posted

At the height of the pandemic, nonprofit groups across Rhode Island rallied to adjust to the evolving needs of their clients during increasingly challenging times. Whereas people in need once came to places like food pantries, they now needed deliveries to their doorstep.

For nonprofit assistance groups like the East Bay Community Action Project (EBCAP), that need didn’t go away when the Covid hysteria mercifully subsided.

“During the height of the Covid pandemic, we realized what a huge need there was for homebound and transit-challenged people, particularly seniors and those with low income, to be able to get food delivered to them, and how hard it was for them to be able to find resources to do so,” said Kim Wetherald, Director of Volunteer Services at EBCAP. “As the pandemic dwindled, a lot of places stopped providing those services. So it became even bigger for us. Like, okay, we’ve identified a need, and the need is still there, but many of the services have gone away. So we said, let’s do it.”

In October of 2022, EBCAP coordinated with the dedicated volunteers at St. Mary of the Bay’s food pantry to set up the “Portable Pantry”, which is an AmeriCorps Seniors program that serves Warren residents aged 55+ who are homebound or who have transit challenges with twice-monthly deliveries of curated grocery lists based on their individual needs.

The program is the first of its kind for EBCAP, and has grown since its inception as more people have become aware of it and inflation has driven expenses up for more people of lower income.

“A lot of the stories are that their rents have gone up, and not something reasonable, they’re going up maybe hundreds of dollars a month and their income is the same,” said Dee Proulx, a volunteer at the St. Mary food pantry. “We hear a lot of sad stories.”

Wendy Baker, director of St. Mary’s food pantry, said that local demand on the pantry has increased significantly in the past year. She said that around this time last year, the pantry was assisting between 80 to 90 people a week. This year, that has risen to around 140 a week, including 15 new requests just this week. “The number in need is growing because prices are soaring,” she said.

Nicole Giroux, who coordinates the Portable Pantry program and its two volunteers (one who coordinates deliveries with clients and another who makes the physical deliveries), said that the program caters to a wide range of people in need.

“I’ve had recipients call me saying they’re disabled, or use a walker or are on the second floor, or don’t drive, or have visual problems, or don’t have much family. It’s the gamut of people 55 and older,” she said, adding that one person just needed temporary deliveries while recovering from knee surgery.

The Warren pilot program has served as proof of concept to EBCAP that such a program would be valuable in other East Bay communities.

“It’s been so successful here,” she said, indicating that Tiverton and East Providence have already made inquiries about starting similar programs in their communities. “It’s been the hub of the wheel so far…and these guys made it work. So the next step is we take it to another community based on what we’ve learned from Wendy and Dee.”

Proulx said that one of the silver linings from the pandemic has been the collaboration between communities and their in-need populations.

“We have more community support through local businesses that have started reaching out to us. In that respect, I think it has kept us going,” she said. “As the demand grows, hopefully that support continues and continues to grow. They realize we’re here and realize the need.”

EBCAP staff are enrolling Warren residents in need of food deliveries, and they are also actively recruiting volunteers to make those deliveries. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer assisting others in the community of Warren, or if you want to learn more about qualifying for Portable Pantry services, please call EBCAP’s Office of Volunteer Services at 401-435-7876 Ext. 1137.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.