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Open Table, the MetroWest charity fighting hunger, has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation, which will provide $70,000 a year to Open Table for 10 years. Earmarked for general operations support, the grant will be used to provide healthy food to people facing hunger and to expand Open Table’s mobile food program.
Open Table first piloted mobile programs in 2018 with the support of the Cummings Foundation. Since then, it has learned that bringing food to individual households and community-based locations is both resource-intensive and a successful strategy to address food insecurity in the Boston suburbs, where transportation, mobility, and time constraints are significant barriers to accessing services. This grant will help Open Table to strategically leverage its new food storage warehouse to build upon its mobile program model and reach an estimated 30% more people facing hunger, the charity said.
Open Table is one of 25 organizations to receive a ten-year grant award from the Cummings $30 Million Grant Program, which supports nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. To date, Cummings Foundation has awarded $600 million to greater Boston nonprofits. The complete list of this year’s grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
“Many of our clients face mounting pressure to afford their basic needs, including food. Inflation has driven food prices up substantially and changes to government food benefit programs will impact many individuals and families in our local community,” said Alexandra DePalo, executive director, Open Table. “This Cummings Foundation grant will help Open Table serve more people both at our Maynard site and through our mobile programs at a time when we expect demand to grow.”
Currently Open Table distributes bags of groceries, which include fresh produce, proteins, dairy, baked goods, and shelf-stable produce, to over 400 households each week and provides over 1,400 prepared meals to clients in the Metro West suburbs.
[Feature Image: Barbara Fisher, left, Chair, Open Table Board of Directors; Joyce Cummings, center, co-founder of Cummings Foundation; and Jessica Kirkwood, right, Open Table Grants Manager, celebrate at Cummings Foundation grant award ceremony.]