Despite frequent discourse about the flavor of our dining hall dishes, they are still reliably and consistently quality and accessible. However, this privilege does not extend beyond the school into Franklin County and Western Massachusetts. In these regions, impoverishment is stark.
Over 12% of Franklin County’s population lives below the poverty line (Data USA 2022) with up to 13,000 people living on food assistance (Food Bank of Western Massachusetts 2024). These statistics highlight a critical issue: food insecurity in Western Massachusetts. Food insecurity refers to limited or uncertain access to sufficient, affordable, and high-quality foods; it is a pervasive issue across Massachusetts but is especially prevalent in Western Massachusetts. In nearby Hampden County, 48% of residents experience food insecurity (Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, 2024) and across the entire Western Massachusetts region, 41% of households face food insecurity (MassLive, 2023).
In May of this year 125,000 Western Massachusetts residents were assisted by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, totalling over 1.2 million meals. The prevalence of food insecurity in Western Massachusetts stems from the area’s history of deindustrialization. With the 1970s’s globalizing markets, American manufacturing corporations transferred their operations to lower-cost regions to maximize profits. This outsourcing of labor had long-term detrimental effects on industrial cities and manufacturing-dependent economies, causing a significant economic decline, unemployment, population decline and soaring poverty rates. Today, Western Massachussets’s population is still yet to recover; the city continues to suffer from the crime, corruption, and drug problems that were set into motion by the economic erosion that began decades ago.
To combat this crippling problem in its neighboring areas, Deerfield Academy has taken initiatives to help alleviate hunger. The Academy’s Center for Service and Global Citizenship program has partnered with four organizations, and collaborates with them weekly. The Academy has partnered with Rachel’s Table, a non-profit organization working to reduce food insecurity and food waste in Western Massachusetts. Rachel’s Table strives to be unique in its approach, emphasizing not just the quantity of the food distributed but the quality. Specifically, Rachel’s table aims to provide culturally relevant foods for individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds. The organization believes in the importance of offering and making accessible culturally relevant food, “the stuff they want to eat, the stuff they know how to cook, the stuff their bodies are used to digesting.” Rachel’s Table’s Director of Intercultural Learning & Land Based Programs Cara Michelle Silverberg, said “Rachel’s table is unique in certain ways. We take this holistic approach and look at the spectrum of hunger needs, immediate term addressing and long term solutions, entering the food supply chain at different points.”
The program has four seperate branches: Food rescue, Food purchase, Gleaning, and Growing gardens. Silverberg continued, “We look at food rescue for people who need it today, allowing them to access cooked and ready-to-eat food at meal sites or pantries.” Long term solutions include gleaning, which connects communities with food resources, and growing gardens, which aims to support people in making their own food. Deerfield Academy’s Center for Global Citizenship has also been working with Rachel’s table for the past three years, sending student volunteers to support their mission to make nutritious, culturally appropriate food accessible in Western Massachusetts. Deerfield Academy also has a long-standing relationship with the Second Helpings program, based in nearby Greenfield.
Every Monday for the last 25 years, Deerfield volunteers have helped prepare and serve meals to over 50 community members. The program offers a sit-down meal experience, where diners sit at tables at The Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew and are provided with a hot meal and an opportunity to connect with others, both with volunteers and other guests. The service also offers a take-out option for those who are unable to sit and dine to take boxes of food back home to families and friends. The program serves an average of 100 meals per Monday, providing at least one quality stable meal per week to the food insecure in Greenfield.
Deerfield’s partnerships with organizations like Rachel’s Table and Second Helpings represent a commitment to combat food insecurity in Western Massachusetts and develop relationships with nearby towns. Through these efforts, while providing vital support to the region, the Academy can instill values of compassion and service in students and increase awareness of the struggles faced by surrounding communities.