More Than Just Meals

We're Building a Resilient Food System

The other day, the Greenfield Recorder boldly declared on its front page: Hunger skyrockets in region.

The article cited the Massachusetts Annual Statewide Survey on Food Insecurity, which just reported new data showing that 37% of Franklin County households are food insecure. You read that correctly—

37% of our neighbors struggle to get enough food.

I've witnessed the impact of this hunger crisis firsthand. At Stone Soup Café, attendance at our programs is soaring and we're scrambling to stretch our budget to meet the growing demand.

Me (Ashley) with a vanload of purchased goods for the Community Store from one of our food rescuing partners, Deals n’ Steals.

Two weeks ago, our grocery program Everybody’s Community Store set a staggering record by serving 150 families in just 90 minutes. I wish I had pride in this growth, but it isn’t a milestone I celebrate; it’s a sign that hunger in our community is worsening.

So much feels fundamentally broken about our food system.

For the past few years, I've been lucky to connect with Cara who regularly delivers freshly-gleaned fruits and veggies to Stone Soup Café. The food drop-offs are quick, filled with friendly chatter while she passes boxes overflowing with fresh fruits and veggies through an alleyway window we've cleverly transformed into a delivery dock.

Local Greenfield kids picking up food from Stone Soup to bring home to share.

The makeshift delivery ramp where Huckleberry helps receive gleaned tomatoes delivered from Rachel’s Table.

Cara Silverberg is the Director of Intercultural Learning and Land-Based Programs at Rachel's Table, a food rescue organization that collaborates closely with Stone Soup Café. She facilitates community gleaning, and therefore has strong connections to local farms.

Cara recently shared some insights with me about our local food system. Some of these facts blew my mind:

• 30–40% of food in the U.S. ends up in landfills. Lost nourishment for people and squandered water, energy, and resources. Ouch!
• Being a farmer is a HARD and GENEROUS vocation. Farmers grow food because they want to feed people, yet they struggle to remain in business. Local farms face humongous challenges from forces like extreme weather caused by climate change, and fierce competition from industrial-scale agriculture bolstered by massive government subsidies.
• Sometimes, it costs farmers more to harvest their crops than they could earn selling them. It’s shocking to think that leaving food in the field can sometimes be a farmer’s best financial choice.

This is where community steps in.

Students from Deerfield Academy come out weekly each Fall to glean. They end their season prepping for a community meal at Stone Soup Café.

During my two and a half years managing Stone Soup's Everybody’s Community Store, one of my favorite things was discovering the incredible network of local organizations, like Rachel’s Table, who work to gather the abundance that might otherwise go to waste, and offer it up as nourishment for the community.

Rachel's Table helps close the food system gaps and ensure that places like Stone Soup Café receive fresh, local ingredients for our meals. Given the skyrocketing cost of food, the deliveries Stone Soup receives from Rachel's Table are an enormous help.

What I love most about our partnership with Rachel’s Table is that it’s about more than food. It’s about connection—bringing people together to build meaningful, actionable solutions.

We're both creating hubs of abundance and support. When there’s extra, there’s a place to share it. When there’s need, there’s a place to meet it.

This work reminds me of something simple yet profound: People genuinely want to help each other out.

Sometimes food gets donated because of its imperfect appearance. These gleaned carrots remind us that we are all in this together, our fates intertwined.

It’s important to recognize that all of us live in a world where our fortunes can change in an instant. We can go from a place of abundance to a place of need within a matter of seconds. Building responsive communities where people take care of each other benefits everybody.

We all just want to feel cared for and connected.

Warmly,

Ashley Kramer

Grant Writer (and former Community Store Director)

Stone Soup Café

Greenfield Community College students lead a community workshop at Stone Soup Café, making kimchi with gleaned produce.

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