MANSFIELD — Thanks to the generosity of the local community, two families in Mansfield’s north end won’t have visit the grocery store for a while.
The School’s Out Food Drive, organized by the local Moms Clean Air Force chapter, raised 160 pounds of non-perishable food items, which will go to two low-income families. Moms Clean Air Force partnered with the North End Community Improvement Collaborative to help determine where the donations would be distributed.
Deanna West-Torrence, NECIC’s founder and director of strategic development, said NECIC was happy to help in this endeavor.
“It’s such a basic need,” she said. “I mean we have to eat.”
Laura Burns, field organizer with Moms Clean Air Force, was pleased with the result of the food drive, which lasted the whole month of June.
Food items that form the base of a healthy diet are becoming more expensive, making it harder for people to provide for their families, she said.
And while some may be unaware of the food insecurity issue affecting the area, others may be under the opinion that those in need should just pull “themselves up by the bootstraps,” she said. “But sometimes it doesn’t matter how many times you do that, you just need help.”
West-Torrence said there’s room for “everybody to pitch in” when it comes to helping people who lack reliable access to affordable and nutritious food.
“The need is really great,” she said.
Earlier this year, NECIC joined forces with Temp2Higher, a social venture staffing solution that aims to fix problems faced by employers and those seeking permanent work.
West-Torrence said she noticed what an effect hunger can have on individuals when many of the participants of the Temp2Higher classes were showing up on empty stomachs.
“What we took away from that is whenever we offer any kind of training is to make sure that we provide food because they were saying things like, ‘Well, all I had was this and I had to feed my kids.’ It was very eye-opening,” she said.
