About 150 families were assisted by the Red Cross through a food fair staged last week at Dorchester’s Frederick Pilot Middle School. Sixteen volunteers arranged fresh produce – including half gallons of apple cider, canned vegetables, and bags of leafy greens, in addition to allotments of pork, chicken, fresh produce, cheese, and eggs – totaling about 50 pounds of food per household.

The Red Cross, which regularly partners with public schools, has been hosting holiday food fairs with the Frederick Pilot School for the past three years.

“The school is family, and family takes care of each other in terms of basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing,” said Andrew J. Brown Jr., who coordinates community outreach for the school.

Standing with his clipboard by a brand-new van, David Andre, director of the Red Cross-run Boston Food Pantry, oversaw the queue.

“I’ve been here 18 years, and I don’t think one week has been the same in all those years,” he said. “The food is the star. They’re coming for the food, but when they’re coming to pick up and receive the food, it is an opportunity to provide more. When people come out to get food, likely they’re eligible to receive SNAP, so we help them receive that benefit, and also by the way, here’s some information about the points of nutrition, eating in a balanced way, and different guidelines.”

The Red Cross food pantry, located on Proctor Street off Massachusetts Avenue since 2006, sees about 3 million pounds of food a year come through its doors. It is open to the public twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday.
For its part, the monthly food fair with the Frederick Pilot School will continue with more fresh fruits, proteins, and veggies on Saturday, Dec. 11.

Sam Thorpe became a volunteer after he went through a period of unemployment. Often, what people see as the stigma of joblessness will keep those who really need help hungry and in their homes, he said.

“You want to put your head down because people are going to know that I have nothing,” he added.

Years later, Thorpe is still at it, and he has advice for people who need help.

“Use your resources. Go to multiple pantries before you run out of food,” he said. “People would rather struggle, not go to the pantry, wait till the food stamps come in when they’re out of food stamps. No! Go to the pantry! I tell people. Go to the food pantry! Go get your needs! Then go use your food stamps. The pantry could get you a lot more, and you won’t have to struggle so hard.”

The issue of food insecurity has lost a lot of its stigma, said Jill Tobacco, who recently joined the Red Cross team as its in-house dietitian.

“You walk down the street, and you see 20 people, chances are there are three or four of them that are hungry, and depending on the neighborhood, it’s more than that.”

Tobacco works in all aspects of the pantry, including decisions about what items go into the bags that the Red Cross hands out.

“Nutrition plays an important role at our pantry, and we’re looking at ways to ramp-it up even more,” she said. “We use MyPlate (based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans) to provide our clients with a healthy balance of food from the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. Everybody gets cereal, rice, or pasta. They get a tomato-based canned item, peas, lentils or black beans, canned tuna or chicken. We try to include fruit as much as possible, bags of nuts, cans of soup or chili as well.”

Early in the pandemic, city officials pulled together a group that included people from Boston Public Schools, the Office of Food Insecurity, and others to immediately set up places for folks to pick up meals. And city employees signed up to deliver meals to people who couldn’t pick them up.

District 4 Councillor Andrea Campbell, who represents Dorchester and Mattapan, was in the midst of the fray. Food access and distribution is only a symptom, she said. In Mattapan two days before Thanksgiving, she joined Brian Worrell, who won the race to succeed her in November and takes office in January, for a turkey giveaway.