By Max Eidelman

Lisa Brukilacchio, a member of the Cambridge Health Alliance and Director of the Somerville Community Health Agenda, recently spoke at length about local efforts being made to provide food to those in need during the pandemic.

As Brukilacchio made clear, the Commonwealth and local agencies have been working diligently to help those in the food-insecure population, but the battle remains uphill and, unfortunately, will only be more difficult through the upcoming winter months.

One of the first topics Brukilacchio spoke about was how the need to support the food-insecure population has changed concurrently with the pandemic. She mentioned various metrics that highlight how the need for support has increased, two of which in particular reflect the change: there has been a 59% increase in food-insecurity in Massachusetts since 2018, and the total number of SNAP recipients has increased by 19.5% between October 2019 and October 2020.

Brukilacchio also mentioned that the Greater Boston Food Bank has been distributing over two million pounds of food per week, which is an astonishing quantity to contemplate. However, she said that even this amount of food is not meeting the need.

Brukilacchio explained that the most effective method of safely getting food to people has been delivery services. Here in Somerville, Project Soup has been leading the charge in the delivery services, working together with Cambridge’s Food For Free Committee.

The city and schools have collaborated as well to provide delivery services to families and children. Brukilacchio also spoke about the success of the Off Their Plate program that has helped feed health-care workers, the people who have truly been on the front line throughout this whole ordeal. She said in Somerville alone this initiative has delivered over 5,000 meals.

Brukilacchio also praised Somerville restaurants, Daddy Jones and Dark Horse, for helping deliver food to those in need and working with the schools to get food out to families. Given how difficult the pandemic has been on restaurants, they along with any others that have been helping get food out there certainly deserve the community’s gratitude.

Brukilacchio also spoke about alternatives to delivery services. Unfortunately, sit-down meals that tend to occur around this time of year have not been an option, but there have been grab-and-go events such as Come to the Table. Hardy Meals and Project Soup have also hosted similar grab-and-go events.

When talking about the outlook for the future, Brukilacchio said that the recovery time will be lengthy, and that it is difficult to truly give specifics. Even as we approach the end of this year, old unknowns persist and new ones appear each day that complicate the pandemic. For those among the food-insecure population, who even without a pandemic have tremendous challenges to contend with, the current situation will inevitably increase the need for support. However, Brukilacchio did say that real movement has been made among local and broader government to support this community. She cited the City Council’s recently passed resolution to call on Governor Baker to streamline the process for SNAP beneficiaries, and she lauded Jim McGovern for being a long-time advocate for food-access activism as well. Examples like these of governmental support and volunteerism do brighten the outlook, but it requires persistence.

For information on how you can help this holiday season and into the new year, please visit somervillefoodsecurity.org, or contact local food pantries to see how you may best donate and volunteer.