Members from each Chamber of Commerce and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts take a picture with the monetary donations from the Fill the Food Bank event.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
CHICOPEE — In collaboration with the Greater Westfield, Greater Holyoke, West of the River, ERC5/East of the River and Springfield Regional Chambers of Commerce, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts announced the second annual Fill the Food Bank event on Tuesday, April 1 from 5-7 p.m.
The event will take place at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, 25 Carew St., Chicopee. Tickets are $25, and guests are asked to bring a shelf-stable contribution of peanut butter, or other nut butters, and jelly or a monetary donation.
To attend, you must be a part of a respective chamber. Readers can visit tinyurl.com/4xt8xk4c and follow the link to sign up with your local chamber.
Those not attending are still welcomed to donate.
The event will also feature networking opportunities, catered food, beverages and some words from Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Executive Director Andrew Morehouse.
Cheyenne Burnham from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts discussed the multi-county chamber event.
Last year during the inaugural event, the theme was rice and beans, and the chamber’s raised $10,000 for the food bank along with donations of rice and beans.
For every $1 that is donated or fundraised, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts say they can provide three nutritious meals to people facing food insecurity in Western Massachusetts.
“Over $10,000 last year is over 30,000 meals plus the exorbitant amount of rice and beans that came through, so I’m assuming that was probably another at least 2,000 meals,” Burnham said.
Food insecurity is an increasing problem that has become more prevalent in many places like Western Massachusetts.
Burnham explained that over 125,000 people a month are visiting the 193 food pantries that the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts provides assistance to.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, established in 1982, serves approximately 190 food pantries and sites in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties for food distribution.
For this event, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts has partnered with Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry, located at 170 Pendexter Ave., as the recipient for all the food donations.
All the monetary donations will go back through the Food Bank to order more food.
The food comes from different agencies and businesses including the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program, or MEFAP, and the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program, TEFAP.
Burnham stated, “We’re able to make a dollar stretch for three meals and so we’ll be able to purchase more food and get that distributed to our pantries as well.”
The food bank is also encouraging more people to do food drives and Burnham explained, “It takes a lot of grassroots efforts as well.”
If anybody is interested in having their own food drive, the food bank has tool kits available to assist the process and they can help partner someone up that’s convenient to where they are in Western Massachusetts.
