Dear Neighbors
I wanted to share a situation from last week that highlights both the strength of Somerville’s food-access network and the importance of continued investment in it.
Last Thursday evening, a downed power line at the top of Grant Street caused an outage for the Elizabeth Peabody House (EPH) and our neighbors. At about 5:00 PM, Eversource shut off power in the area, taking EPH’s cold storage and community fridge offline.
With refrigerated and frozen food at risk, EPH staff stayed late to assess the situation and coordinate a response. Within an hour, the Somerville Community Fridge volunteer team mobilized to receive approximately 800 pounds of safe, usable food, along with 60 cartons of eggs, that otherwise could have been lost to waste. The food rescued and redirected from EPH represented approximately $1,500 in resources that was still distributed to Somerville residents through the community fridge network.
At that point, we were concerned we might need to close our Sunday distribution, leaving approximately 120 households—including residents at North Street—without food from EPH.
Then, on Friday morning, Project SOUP contacted us about an oversupply of fresh produce they needed to redirect. When EPH’s power was restored around 4:30 p.m., our team mobilized to pick up approximately 760 pounds of fruits and vegetables, replenishing our fresh food supply just in time for local households counting on their weekly groceries from EPH.
All of this was accomplished by nine people—five EPH staff members, three Community Fridge volunteers, and the Project SOUP manager—who worked together to protect fresh food and make it available to those who rely on our food access network.
This is what a robust local food-access system looks like: community partners working together to manage disruptions, avoid waste, and make sure fresh food is available to the people who rely on it. It also demonstrates the value of having diverse community partners that can mobilize to support each other and coordinate logistics quickly when disruptions arise.
Food purchases are essential, of course. However, investments in staff capacity, cold storage, backup systems, transportation, communications, and coordination make the whole system more resilient. They enable partners to respond in real time and maintain dependable access for Somerville households.
Sincerely,
Matthew Caughey (he/him)
Chief Executive Officer
The Elizabeth Peabody House