New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), the largest hunger-relief organization in New England, is delighted to announce a new partnership with Amazon. A leader in distribution and operational expertise, Amazon will donate weekly transportation services to GBFB every Wednesday, providing a full-sized tractor trailer and class A driver to deliver much needed healthy food from GBFB’s warehouse in Boston to a satellite dock in New Bedford, which serves several GBFB partner agencies on the South Coast. Amazon has committed to moving a total of one million pounds of food to this hard-hit region to assist GBFB with its mission to end hunger.
“We are so thankful to Amazon for donating these valuable transportation services to help GBFB get more healthy food to those that need it most,” said Catherine D’Amato, president and CEO of GBFB. “Partners like Amazon are critical to GBFB’s continued ability to respond to the impact the pandemic has had on food insecurity rates in Eastern Massachusetts, allowing for creative solutions to meet the increase in demand for nutritious food.”
GBFB delivers food to nearly 600 food distribution partners across Eastern Massachusetts, with over half being perishable items that require proper refrigeration, creating complex logistical challenges. Satellite locations like the one in New Bedford enable GBFB to more efficiently deliver this much needed healthy food to partners outside the Boston area. From the New Bedford location, GBFB serves over 45 agency partners in surrounding communities, distributing the equivalent of more than 309,000 meals per month.
“The Greater Boston Food Bank needed help scaling their invaluable service to people throughout the South Coast of Massachusetts. Given our experience in logistics and distribution, this partnership was a natural fit,” said Andrew Cohen, Amazon Senior Manager, Community Operations. “GBFB is working hard every day to ensure our neighbors have enough to eat, especially given the hardship brought on by the pandemic. We are glad we were given an opportunity to assist them.”
The weekly Amazon delivery will help GBFB serve a region that has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with food insecurity rates persisting at historic levels. Massachusetts saw an overall increase in food insecurity of 55 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to a recent survey conducted by GBFB in collaboration with the National Food Access and COVID Research Team (NFACT). Feeding America has projected that 1 in 10 people will still be experiencing food insecurity in Eastern Massachusetts through the end of 2021.
