Beverly Bootstraps expands food delivery to low-income seniors

And changes Food Pantry hours to Monday – Thursdsay

Beverly, Mass (May 15) – Beverly Bootstraps is helping to keep those most vulnerable to coronavirus stay safe by delivering food directly to low-income senior housing sites. With the virus disproportionately affecting the elderly, in April Bootstraps had partnered with Harborlight Community Partners and Beverly Housing Authority to deliver bags of shelf stable and perishable foods to Federal Street, Garden City Towers, Turtle Woods/Turtle Creek, Apple Village and Balch Street, covering 408 senior units.

Now they have added two more buildings to that list – Herrick Street  and Chestnut Park, adding 30 more senior units that won’t need to leave their homes to get groceries. Staff and volunteers, while wearing masks and gloves, deliver the food to each door in the building, knock to let the resident know it’s there and move on.

Susan Carleton, Executive Director of Beverly Housing Authority said “On behalf of the Beverly Housing Authority staff, I want to give a big shout out to Beverly Bootstraps and their volunteers for their generosity of providing and delivering bags of groceries to our elderly residents during this difficult time.”

“Although delivery is a new method of connecting people with emergency food for Beverly Bootstraps, it hits the very core of our efforts to alleviate hunger in our community,” said Sue Gabriel, Beverly Bootstraps Executive Director. “Having been on the delivery team at a couple of the sites, the gratitude of those receiving the food is palpable. Access is their major challenge and for them to find a bag of nutritious food outside their door results in heartfelt gratitude. It makes our work so real and so important”

To accommodate the senior deliveries on Fridays, Beverly Bootstraps has adjusted their Food Pantry hours to be open Monday through Friday as follows:

Monday & Thursday, 10:00am – 2:00pm
Tuesday, 2:00pm – 6:00pm
Wednesday, 10:00am – 6:00pm

Anyone who would like to start donating food to their Food Pantry again, can now place donations in the Beverly Bootstraps food collection bins at Shaw’s, 71 Dodge Street, Stop & Shop, 37 Enon Street and Stop & Shop, 224 Elliott Street while there on the appropriate assigned shopping day.

 

Beverly Bootstraps provides critical resources to families and individuals so they may achieve self-sufficiency. We offer emergency and long-term assistance including: access to food, housing stability, adult and youth education, counseling and advocacy. We are community funded and supported.

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