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26 | <strong>01907</strong><br />
Hope's<br />
Anchor<br />
BY ELYSE CARMOSINO<br />
When a small group of Swampscott<br />
community members decided in 2019 to<br />
open a food bank, they had no idea how<br />
soon or how desperately their services<br />
would be needed.<br />
Just days before the new pantry was<br />
set to open its doors in March 2020, the<br />
COVID-19 pandemic swept through<br />
the North Shore, shutting down nearly<br />
every aspect of everyday life and bringing<br />
with it a wave of job losses that caused<br />
communities everywhere to fear the worst.<br />
“Friday, March 13 was our last day in<br />
school,” said teacher Laura Spathanas, a<br />
former member of the Swampscott Select<br />
Board and one of a group of individuals<br />
who helped found what’s now known as<br />
the Anchor Food Pantry. “That Monday,<br />
March 16, we were up and running.<br />
“We opened our Facebook page and<br />
started getting funds, then we went to the<br />
store and bought enough food at that point<br />
to make 40 bags of groceries.”<br />
Currently located at the Swampscott<br />
Senior Center inside Swampscott High<br />
School, the food bank is actually an<br />
iteration of the town’s Interfaith Food<br />
Pantry, which was originally run by a group<br />
of four to six local churches.<br />
For nearly two decades, the involved<br />
parishes rotated duties, providing monthly<br />
food donations to approximately 30 to 35<br />
seniors and families.<br />
Then in the late summer of 2019,<br />
Spathanas and several others received some<br />
news.<br />
“Those churches reached out to a couple of<br />
community members, one of them being an<br />
employee at the Swampscott Senior Center, to<br />
say they couldn’t really sustain what they were<br />
doing but wanting to know if we had any ideas<br />
for how we could continue doing what they<br />
were doing in a different way,” Spathanas said.<br />
“That’s when I got involved.”<br />
Senior Center representative Gina Bush<br />
reached out to For the Love of Swampscott<br />
president Diane O’Brien for help, and<br />
O’Brien went on to recruit Spathanas.<br />
Unaware of what lay in store, the group<br />
quickly went to work.<br />
“The three of us met continually with<br />
the churches after that to answer (the<br />
question) ‘how can we help these<br />
families and even make it bigger? How<br />
can we make it a whole community<br />
pantry?’ We talked for several months<br />
and eventually came up with the<br />
concept for the Anchor Food Pantry,”<br />
Spathanas said.<br />
After researching Swampscott’s<br />
specific food needs, the three women<br />
created the pantry’s mission statement<br />
and found a temporary location in a<br />
central part of town.<br />
A board of directors was then<br />
appointed, and the pantry finally held<br />
its first board meeting in February<br />
2020.<br />
Then the pandemic hit.<br />
“At the time we thought, ‘oh this<br />
is a two-week shutdown. We’ll do<br />
what we can (to get food to families),’”<br />
Spathanas said. “Then things kept<br />
rapidly changing and we had to just<br />
keep plugging along.”<br />
Even before the pandemic, food<br />
insecurity had been a growing issue in<br />
Swampscott.<br />
According to the Massachusetts<br />
Department of Elementary and<br />
Secondary Education, 16 percent of<br />
Swampscott students identified as<br />
economically challenged during the<br />
2019-2020 school year — an alarming<br />
uptick compared to just 4 percent in<br />
2004 and 8 percent in 2009.<br />
Spathanas also noted that, according<br />
to data included in the Swampscott<br />
2025 Master Plan — which was<br />
adopted in 2016 — approximately one<br />
quarter of Swampscott households<br />
qualify as low-income and earn less<br />
than 80 percent of the Area Median<br />
Income, making them eligible for<br />
housing assistance through most state<br />
and federal programs.<br />
The need is just as pressing in the<br />
community’s senior households, with<br />
Spathanas adding that according to a<br />
survey conducted by the Swampscott<br />
for All Ages (SfAA) Needs Assessment<br />
Report in October 2019, 22 percent of<br />
respondents aged 65 and older reported<br />
a median area income of less than<br />
$25,000 per year.<br />
For many involved in the pantry,<br />
those numbers aren’t surprising.<br />
“When we did the research, the<br />
number of students coming from<br />
families below the poverty level was<br />
higher than what I think people expect<br />
for Swampscott,” Spathanas said. “But<br />
the teachers said, ‘we know. We’re<br />
TOP: Laura Spathanas helped found Anchor Food<br />
Pantry, located in the Senior Center.<br />
MIDDLE: Anchor Food Pantry board member Kayla<br />
LeClerc helps feed 50 households every month.<br />
BOTTOM: From left, Kayla LeClerc, Susan Cripps, and<br />
Laura Spanthanas said hunger in Swampscott is a<br />
reality.<br />
PHOTOS: JULIA HOPKINS