No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody has been named the Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce’s Nonprofit of the month for August.
Located in the former location of the Conway Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home & Cremation Care at 20 Church St., volunteers of the nonprofit pack bags of food for children across the city, No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jarrod Hochman said. Volunteers from around the area bag food on Wednesdays and Thursdays, with more volunteers driving to drop the food off on Thursdays.
The nonprofit was formed in October 2017 to feed 120 elementary-school students in the district, Hochman said.
It is led by its Board of Directors: Lucille Schfino, Sharon Gould, Kathy Vinagro, Carol Murtagh, Alan Titelbaum, Ross Titelbaum, President Michele Feld, Hochman, and Treasurer Dennis Feld.
Hochman, who has been a School Committee member since 2009, said he was approached by Michele Feld. He recalls her asking him what students who receive free lunch do on weekends. He said he had never thought of that problem before.
Michele Feld introduced him to a state-wide program in Florida that provides a similar service as the Peabody nonprofit.
The nonprofit then began with volunteers dropping off backpacks filled with meals at the schools on Fridays, which were returned and filled again the following week. It only serviced Center and Welch elementary schools due to the limited funding and volunteers at the time.
“We had nothing, except we had 120 kids that needed help,” Hochman said.
No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody quickly received support from numerous organizations across the city, such as the Peabody Education Foundation, Haven From Hunger, and the Rotary Club of Peabody, he said.
When students were sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the model shifted to a home-delivery service, he said.
Hochman recalls being in a meeting at the Peabody Public Schools district office when Mayor Ted Bettencourt walked in to inform everyone that schools would be closing for two weeks due to the pandemic. At that point, the nonprofit was serving 340 students and only at the eight elementary schools. The nonprofit did not know the names or addresses of the students.
“I need your kids. I need you to give me the list,” Hochman said he told the principals. “They gave us the list… We were literally tearing the pieces of paper that they gave us and handing it to a person saying, ‘Please deliver to these kids.’”
He posted on Facebook that afternoon asking for help from the community and had 60 volunteers show up to help deliver food within 40 minutes.
“It was chaotic. People were scared because of the pandemic,” he said. “That changed our program dramatically.”
Now, the nonprofit services approximately 440 students across the district each week and provides them with one or two bags of meals and groceries, using single-use bags instead of backpacks. The bags are filled with milk; non-perishable foods, such as macaroni and cheese and rice and bean mix; and fresh fruit donated by Brooksby Farm.
“It’s remarkable how much the program’s evolved since then,” he said.
Hochman said he estimates nearly 1,000 volunteers have contributed over the past seven years, none of whom were paid.
All of the food comes from donations, mostly from the Greater Boston Food Bank, he said. The nonprofit also gives away non-food items, including winter clothes and school supplies, that are donated to it.
“It’s just been a tremendous community effort,” Hochman said. “It’s remarkable to me how many people have touched this program.”
Peabody resident Ryan Morrison said he began volunteering as a driver nearly three years ago.
“I’ve actually talked to some of the people that I would see on the street… and they would ask me what I’m doing… They’d say, ‘How long are you gonna do this for?’ And I’d say, ‘Forever,’” Morrison said. “They’d say, ‘Why? I don’t understand.’ I’m like, ‘I have to keep Peabody alive.”
Alan Titelbaum, a member of the nonprofit’s board of directors, said he became involved with No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My Thursday, this is it,” he said. “(I) drop everything when I know I have to be here on a Thursday to do this.”
“This is about helping kids and families,” Hochman said.
