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01907 Spring 2021

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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

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