Community Spotlight: Welcome to Food Link (A Virtual Tour of the Food Link Hub)
Hello, there! Welcome to Food Link! We are so happy that you made it. I’m Darcy, Food Link’s Admin Assistant, and I will be your guide. What’s that? Some of you aren’t too familiar with Food Link? Some of you already feel like experts? Well, that’s alright! All are welcome on this tour. Whether this is your first time visiting or you are a regular volunteer or partner, our doors are open to you.
Last month, Food Link hosted its second annual Open House, where over 80 volunteers, board members, staff, and representatives from food recipients and food donors gathered at the Food Link Hub for a night of laughter, joy, and connection. During her speech, Food Link’s Executive Director Rachel Albert told attendees, “You are Food Link.” And that statement couldn’t be truer: Food Link is more than a hub. It’s the shared relationships, dedication, and creativity that unite us all inside and outside our walls. Now, please step inside! Our first stop is Operations.
First Floor: Ops
Welcome to Operations (“Ops” for short), where the excitement happens! Every day, volunteers come in and out of this space to sort, pack, deliver, and pick up food for our recipient agencies. If you haven’t visited in a while, Ops may look different to you. Recently, our Operations Coordinator, Khadejeh, led staff and volunteers in “ops”-timizing the space for increased efficiency, safety, and comfort. Since the changes were made in the Fall, volunteers have complimented how spacious the place feels.
Image Description: Three volunteers hold up pumpkins at the Food Link Hub.
At the Open House, regular volunteer Elliott described the Food Link Hub as “a little bit of heaven,” referencing “The Parable of the Long Spoons” in which, in both heaven and hell, everyone is forced to eat with oversized utensils. While both places are beautiful, everyone is shouting at one another in hell because the spoons are too long to feed themselves, but in heaven, everyone is content because they feed one another. To Elliot, Food Link represents the latter, where the “feeding goes both ways.” He plays a role in feeding people and is fed as a volunteer by being part of a community.
Food Link’s Ops space is a place of warmth and connection where volunteers, staff, and recipient agencies collaborate to ensure good food is used to nourish people rather than left to waste. Now, let’s learn more about how the magic happens by traveling upstairs to our admin office!
Second Floor: Admin
Now, you’re probably thinking, how is the admin office going to be interesting? Well, here is where plans are discussed, meetings are held, and decisions are made. And Food Link has been working harder than ever to source more food for our communities. With SNAP funding in crisis and hunger rising, Food Link has received increased requests from both current and prospective recipient agencies for additional food. To meet this need, Food Link is engaging in more large-scale food recovery and partnering with the Greater Boston Collaborative Food Access Hub (GBCFAH) in Roxbury to maximize our storage capacity. In November, we moved over 40,000 lbs. of food through the Collaborative for our recipient organizations, almost 20% of our total rescued that month.
Image Description: Food Link Roxbury Logistics Manager Meghan pushes a pallet of produce up a ramp at the GBCFAH loading dock.
Food Link staff take our work and impact seriously while also knowing when to have fun. In her Open House speech, Rachel stated, “We believe in doing work with empathy, respect, and a solid dose of humor.” During meetings, we give everyone the space to share their ideas while also saving time for jokes and laughter. Rachel once overheard a staff member during an Operations team meeting say that “We embrace our mistakes here at Food Link.”
While our admin office may not be where we move food, it’s where staff come together to brainstorm ideas, listen to one another’s needs, and develop the steps needed to take action. Now, let’s return outside for our last stop, our vans, where we will learn about Food Link’s relationships beyond the Hub.
Loading Dock: The Vans
Throughout this tour, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing what Food Link looks like to volunteers and staff, but what does Food Link look like to our food donors and recipients? During the Open House, Jean, a Wegmans Burlington receiver who coordinates pickups with Food Link, described Wegmans’ partnership with us as “100% positive.” She loves our staff’s passion. She appreciates that she can call or email whenever Wegmans has extra food to donate, and Food Link never says no.
Similarly, Thomas, a staff member at the Elizabeth Peabody House in Somerville, states that since partnering with Food Link a year ago, they’ve been able to distribute “so much food” to their clients. Food Link is their only source of bread and baked goods on Sundays, which is their busiest day of the week. He particularly complimented Food Link volunteers, calling them “fantastic.”
Image Description: Volunteers pose as they load bread onto a van from the Food Link Hub loading dock.
While we’re happy to receive positive feedback from our food donors and recipients, we are always looking for ways to better support our partners through annual agency surveys and site visits. In our most recent Spring survey, agencies requested more refrigerated goods and other foods in anticipation of increased demand for their services. In response to these requests, Food Link has been renting additional cold storage with GBCFAH and expanding our vehicle fleet. We will continue checking in with our partners to ensure they receive the food their clients need.
Thank You for Visiting!
From our bustling Ops space to the collaboration in our admin office to the relationships we build, it is apparent that Food Link is more than a hub. Food Link is a place of purpose and connection for our volunteers and staff, and a network that bridges food donors and recipient agencies. Each person and organization that plays a role in our mission to ensure everyone has abundant, nourishing food is an integral part of Food Link. Thank you for coming along on this tour—we hope you visit again soon!
Image Description: Food Link staff and volunteers pose together on the loading dock while holding up produce. (Image Credit: MJ)
If you would like to support our Food Link community so we can keep nourishing your neighbors, please consider making a gift or signing up to volunteer. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media to keep up with all Food Link news. If you have any questions, email us at info@foodlinkma.org or call us at 781-819-4225.