LYNN — Leading through Empowering Opportunities (LEO), Inc. has been awarded a $152,157 state grant, which will help the organization better address food insecurity in the city.
The funds, awarded through the Baker-Polito administration’s Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program, will be used to purchase a refrigerated cargo van, and additional storage and important kitchen infrastructure, such as commercial refrigerator and freezer units, worktables and insulated food containers.
Lisa McFadden, director of development and communications for LEO, Inc, said the grant will enable the organization to make its food pantry and distribution offerings more accessible to Lynn families and senior citizens.
Rather than being limited to offering one large food pantry event at its Blossom Street site, where the organization’s commercial kitchen space is currently located, LEO Inc. will be able to hold smaller events at each of its three sites, Blossom, Waitt Avenue and Broad Street, according to McFadden.
“Right now we do all of our staging and supplemental food distribution events for our Head Start families out of our Blossom Street center, which is terrific, and we have our commercial kitchen there,” said McFadden.
“But it’s challenging for our families who are from different parts of the city and aren’t going to Blossom Street to pick up their children. This will make food distribution easier to manage and access if we have additional sites available.”
LEO won’t be adding a full commercial kitchen to the two other sites, but the funds will enable them to add food storage and pantry space, which will include sinks, tables and the new refrigerator and freezer units, McFadden said.
“This will allow us to do smaller events rather than putting together 250 or 300 lots of food,” said McFadden. “We can do 100 at Blossom Street and 75 at Early Head Start on Waitt Avenue and 100 at Broad Street. It allows for easier management and allows us to follow the COVID-era standards a little more easily, (such as) social distancing and smaller crowds.”
LEO runs two major food distribution efforts, which includes a monthly drive for seniors and a more frequent offering for its Head Start families. The organization had traditionally held its food distribution for Head Start families on a monthly basis as well, but increased it to a weekly donation last spring due to increased food insecurity that was brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, McFadden said.
Over the summer, when the area started experiencing food supply chain interruptions, distribution at LEO became more sporadic, which prompted the organization to start working more closely with the Salvation Army, McFadden said.
“(They) would provide either lots of food for us or we would send our clients to the Salvation Army to pick up the lots of food,” said McFadden.
McFadden said LEO is planning to support some of the Salvation Army’s food distribution efforts, by sharing the refrigerated van the organization plans to buy with their newly awarded grant funding.
The purpose of the cargo van is to help coordinate the transport of food primarily from the Greater Boston Food Bank to Lynn, which has mainly been managed by the Lynn Salvation Army, she said.
“The Salvation Army has been working with a combination of leased and loaned vehicles to be able to bring food out of Boston and up to Lynn,” said McFadden. “I’m hoping that actually having a vehicle in our possession will mean that they don’t have to scramble as much or worry about going out and leasing vehicles as often.”
The grant funding is much needed, McFadden said, as it comes at a time when food insecurity is exacerbated by another COVID-19 surge, which has sent case numbers soaring locally, statewide and across the country.
Unemployment levels are starting to rise again as a result, she said, noting that LEO has already been working with a number of new clients who have never before needed assistance.
“LEO has seen a tremendous uptick in need since the beginning of the pandemic,” said McFadden. “Although that’s slowed a little bit during the summer months, as we head into this season where COVID positive cases are climbing again, we certainly anticipate that the level of need will exceed what we experienced in the spring.”