SOMERVILLE- On December 4th, 2012, a diverse group of community leaders gathered outside of St. Benedict's Parish to celebrate the installation of a walk-in refrigerator that will help provide fresh produce for clients of Project SOUP. The installation of this refrigerator was the solidification of a dream over four years in the making. The idea to purchase a refrigerator that would store perishable food for those in need began when the Tisch College at Tufts University sent out a request to non-profit organizations that were addressing various social crises.
The Somerville Homeless Coalition partnered with a community health class at Tufts to research the issue of food access in Somerville. They began learning more about the prevalence of the issue by conducting surveys and interviews, and created a Community Action Board to come up with concrete ways to solve this problem.Through a conversation at a Community Action Board meeting, Michelle Holcomb, the Development Director for Food for Free, spoke about the need for fresh, nutritious food for everyone, and the idea of purchasing a walk-in cooler to store it was born.
It took two years of research, fundraising, and financial support from the Tisch College a philanthropy class at the Experiential College, both at Tufts, the Somerville Health Agenda, the Eaton Vance Management Company, and many other donors to make their dream a reality.Yesterday afternoon, a group of individuals, brought together by a desire for everyone to have access to healthy food, stood together in front of the materialization of their hard work.
Mayor Curtatone, who spoke at the dedication, praised the work of those gathered, saying "you can't govern a city on your own. You need stakeholders to do the work. We want Somerville to be a place where everyone can live, work, play and raise a family."
AHM
10:50 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012
There is an increase in homelesness in Somerville and accross the nation an increase in homelesness of seniors. I would think we should take that money for the bike track and use it here and get some real good use out of that money. I sit here and moan about how I am making 2/3rds less in the last 4 years and I had to stop taking some medications because I can longer can afford them and these people don't even get a meal and a palce to live. And I should complain.
SomervilleGirl
12:05 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
AHM,
Increase in Homelessness? Is any news network reporting this as fact? Or are we still made to believe that 99.9% of everyone who participated in an Occupy Movement is an anti-establishment drug addicted looney-tune? Isn't that what they tried to convince middle-America during the 60's when hippies protested against the numerous atrocities of the war in Vietnam?
I agree, money should be spent on our elderly and also struggling families, individuals who can't make ends meet. But as long as we have the "anti-car brigade", as one author of Boston Magazine put it--there is no chance of that happening, unless of course, our politicians decide they want to go against the most aggressive body of citizens ever to land in Somerville over the past ten years.
Good Luck trying to beat this crowd. Whoever is backing them up, must have millions to squander.
Just take a look at a site called boston biker dot org and you will see what I mean....here is a refreshing article from someone who is right on point about the culture which is festering......http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/2012/02/hell-yeah-i-love-my-car-in-boston/
AHM
1:08 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
I only knew about the Somerville one a few weeks ago. A knitting group was making stuff to sell to help the homeless in Somerville which is increasing. The national one for seniors I saw in the New York Times just recently. It's just pne of those things that really gets me. I saw the bike link.