Anne Donohue
Belmont is often considered a well-to-do town with a median household income just over $150,000 per year. Yet in recent years, the town has seen a dramatic increase in the number of households receiving benefits to help put food on the table.
As of July, 655 Belmont households receive benefits from the federally-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. The number of households receiving SNAP benefits jumped by 64% from 2019 to 2022, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance.
Belmont is not alone. The percentage of Massachusetts households facing food insecurity tripled from 2019 to June of this year, from about 9% to nearly 27%, according to a recent report from Project Bread.
“Food insecurity means lack of regular access to healthy food,” explains Abigail Klingbeil, who studies food insecurity as a candidate for a Masters of Public Health degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Many people in Belmont don’t have that access all the time.”
Klingbeil says the pandemic is partially to blame for the uptick in food insecurity. But the spike in grocery prices combined with rents increasing faster than incomes are also factors.
A Greater Boston Food Bank study found that some local families are making desperate choices, such as watering down baby formula or deciding whether to pay for food instead of rent or medical care.
Help is Available
As the need in Belmont has increased, organizations and private citizens have tried to fill the gap.
“One problem with food insecurity is access. It is hard to get to affordable, healthy food when you need it,” said Suzanne Johannet, the president of the Belmont Food Collaborative, the parent organization of the Belmont Farmers’ Market and Belmont Helps.
(If you need help stretching your food budget, Project Bread has information in multiple languages.)
Belmont Farmers’ Market
The Belmont Farmers’ Market matches SNAP benefits — up to $25 each week — for families to spend on local produce, prepared foods, and other products. The matching funds come from sponsorships, donations, and grants. As the need has increased over the years, the market’s annual SNAP match has jumped from $956 in 2011 to more than $23,000 in 2022.
“It is so rewarding when we explain our match to a new shopper,” said Mireia Carpio, the farmers’ market manager. Carpio pointed out that the additional money also helps support the family farms and small businesses that sell their products at the market.
Belmont Helps
Amy Kirsch and Shana Wang founded Belmont Helps in 2020 to coordinate volunteers, who wanted to help neighbors struggling during the Covid-19 outbreak.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, many people, and especially seniors, were not leaving their houses,” said Kirsch.
The group started bringing meals, groceries, and grocery store gift certificates to Belmont residents in need. The organization also delivers weekly fresh produce boxes through a partnership with Food for Free, which works with 100 organizations to bring nutritious food to people in Eastern Massachusetts.
“Sometimes it is a short-term need, an illness or injury, or other financial obligations coming due,” said Wang. Many of the referrals identifying people who might need assistance come from the schools.
The organization now has about 100–150 volunteers and serves about 85 families per year.
“Belmont Helps is a real blessing for many people,” said a mother of three children, whom we are not naming to protect her privacy.
Belmont Food Pantry
The Belmont Food Pantry has been providing food assistance in Belmont at various locations since 1992. Now housed at Town Hall, the pantry provides food for about 180 Belmont households each month. Much of the donated foods are canned goods and other non-perishable food.
But recently the pantry has been getting fresh food donations from the Greater Boston Food Bank and the Boston Area Gleaners. From 2013 to 2018, twenty tons of produce were donated to the pantry.
Through all of these programs, residents in need are gaining access to better quality of food.
Suzanne Johannet, who is also a physician, says we need to encourage healthy eating now or pay more in healthcare later.
“In this country, the cheapest food provides the least health benefit. A diet lacking in healthy foods can lead to chronic health problems like diabetes and heart disease.”
She argues that providing families with healthy fresh food is not only the right thing to do, but the economically smart thing to do.
Hal Shubin, Chair of the Belmont Farmers’ Market Committee, and a Belmont Voice volunteer, provided research for this story.
