Served 815 Guests Weekly at the Pantry

Guests living or working in the seven communities we serve placed 14,324 food orders in 2024, obtaining food for their 34,620 family members during the year. Our guest roster in 2024 included 1580 family members in 623 households. About half the households included a senior over the age of 65 and 22% of our guests were children. As in prior years, we delivered over half the food orders, providing a critical service to those without transportation. We started the year serving 671 guests each week and ended serving 815 guests a week, an increase of 22%. 

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Donated 36,000 Hours to Assist Neighbors

At the end of 2024 we had a roster of 227 active volunteers. Of these, 75 joined us in 2024 and 107 have been volunteering with us for three or more years. In total volunteers gave more than 36,000 hours of service in 2024. We continue to be one the highest volume users of Signup, the online scheduling tool we adopted in 2023.

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​Served 250 Students Weekly at Pantries in 9 Schools

Our pantries in local schools provide students in need with snacks and mini-meals to eat at school or take home. We started the year with pantries in all five schools in the Triton Regional School District. In 2024 we opened a pantry at River Valley Charter School, extending support to families in Newburyport and Merrimac, and collaborated with the Enrichment Center at Kelleher Circle in Newburyport, which offers after-school activities for children in subsidized housing. Later in the year we expanded further by opening pantries at Upper Molin Elementary School and Nock Middle School in Newburyport and hope to partner with Newburyport High School to launch a pantry during 2025.

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Distributed over 539,183 Pounds of Food in 2024

According to Project Bread’s conversion ratio, the food we distributed is equivalent to 449,320 meals. The majority of food, 60.7%, was purchased from or donated by the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), 7.5% was purchased locally, and 31.8% was donated by individuals or food drives sponsored by schools, churches, businesses, and local service and community organizations. Due to the range of items we receive, our guests can typically select from over 400 items.

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Worked with Partners to Meet Critical Needs

• Salem Food Pantry - During much of 2024, the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), our major source of food, faced a shortage of storage space and warehouse workers. Much of the food was only available in full pallets, which we didn’t have space to store. As a result, the amount of food we could receive was reduced. The Salem Food Pantry stepped in by ordering full pallets of food to be shared with local pantries. Today we continue to pick up additional fresh produce and canned items from their cross-dock.

• Seacoast Regional Food Hub – Since early fall we have been able to pick up our weekly GBFB orders from the Seacoast Regional Food Hub operated by Our Neighbors’ Table in Salisbury instead of driving to Salem for them. The cross dock at the HUB has also enabled us to receive four additional orders a year. In addition, Our Neighbors’ Table rents their panel trucks and van to us for pick-up of GBFB orders in Salisbury and Salem and delivery of groceries to more than 180 households on Fridays.

• Nourishing The North Shore – Nourishing the North Shore continues to provide us with locally grown fresh produce when it is in season. This supplements the produce we buy from the GBFB and local markets, often providing a greater variety than otherwise available. During 2024 we continued our summer outside Farmers’ Market, a highlight for guests who enjoy selecting their own locally grown produce.

• Greater Newbury Elder Pet Fund – Many of our guests consider their pets essential to their well-being but have difficulty affording their food and care. The Pet Fund, a partner since 2017, provides guests with free pet food, which they request in their online order.

 

Expanded Storage Space in our Building

Due to the continued increase in the number of guests we serve and the expansion of the school pantry program, in 2024 we built a 20’ x 39’ addition, providing 780 square feet of additional storage space including a walk-in freezer and a walk-in refrigerator. With this additional storage space, we now take advantage of large donations and discounted bulk purchases. We have also adjusted our workflow to take advantage of the extra space and, with the help of a volunteer consultant, optimized the flow of activities, organization of supplies, and placement of work tables.

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Recovered Food from Schools, Businesses and Pantry Operations

Each week that school is in session our volunteers collect unused fruit, vegetables, milk, sandwiches, juices, and snacks that are still able to be used, but by regulation, would have to be discarded. Currently we are working with Newbury Elementary, Newburyport Public Schools, Salisbury Elementary and Pentucket High School. In 2024 the program recovered 16,710 pounds of food that would have been discarded. We are always looking for ways in which we can recover perfectly good food that would end up in landfills. We currently pick up surplus food from a number of local restaurants and bakeries. And at the end of each week, we take steps to ensure that any food that won’t keep until the next Pantry Day is distributed to local half-way houses and, when unsuitable for humans, to farms that use it for feed.

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Fine Tuned New Financial and Inventory/Order Management Systems

After going live with the Oracle Netsuite financial system and Pantrysoft order management and inventory system in 2023, we spent most of 2024 improving processes, building redundancy for vacationing volunteers, and fine-tuning reporting. Each system has enabled us to improve efficiency and effectiveness as we continue to serve large increases in guests.

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Selected for Participation in Food Nutrition Study

We are one of 30 food pantries selected to participate in a two-and-a-half year Be Well Study sponsored by Mass General Hospital and the Greater Boston Food Bank. This work focuses on food pantries helping guests make healthier food choices by identifying healthier foods based on how much saturated fat, sodium and added sugars each item has. Our online ordering system identifies the rating for each item, helping guests in their food choices.

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Supported Generously by the Community

Throughout 2024 our community was tremendously and consistently generous. Donations have come to us from across the community and beyond - from individuals and organizations, from guests, volunteers and others who know or have recently learned about our mission and activities. In 2024 we received financial support from 217 individuals and 34 organizations.

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Built Recognition as a Critical Community Resource

Through press coverage and updates to councils on aging, churches and local service organizations, we continued to build our organization’s recognition. We also used posters, our website (2700 views monthly) Facebook (15,420 people) and Instagram (14,628 people) posts to share information about our services and activities. Our enthusiastic volunteers organized, staffed and promoted activities across the community in support of the pantry, including a concert at Maudslay Arts center, dinners at Loretta’s, the Byfield car Show, the Turkey Classic Golf Tournament, two Underground Comedy shows at the Grog, and gift wrapping at Henry Bear’s Park at Christmas time.

 

We continued to speak before local service organizations and received excellent press coverage about our school pantry program, our food recovery in local schools and the challenges we faced as guest numbers grew. We continued outreach to members of the Board of Selectmen/Councillors for the 7 towns we serve to keep them informed about the number of food requests we receive in their communities.