Advocate Newspapers
May 22, 2020
By Barbara Taormina
MALDEN - Bread of Life will mark its 40th anniversary in Malden this year. For the past four decades, the nondenominational faith-based organization has been running a food pantry and offering dinner and hospitality to individuals and families in need through an evening meals program. Over the years, Bread of Life has been shuffled around to different church basements and rec halls in old city buildings. Volunteers have even served meals from the back of a truck when no other space was available.
“We’ve been very resilient about moving around,” said Bread of Life Development Director Patty Kelly. “We just keep rolling along.” That ability to adapt and use all available resources to get the job done no doubt came in handy over the past several months as Bread of Life faced a spike in the number of people reaching out for help as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis.
“Demand has more than doubled,” said Bread of Life Executive Director Gabriella Snyder Stelmack. “We’re working on getting more food and a bigger truck.”
Back in March, Bread of Life’s food pantry at 45 Eastern Ave. was providing groceries for about 80 households. By the end of April, the organization was stocking kitchen shelves for 185 households.
Stelmack said that up to 80 percent of the people now coming to the food pantry are new to Bread of Life and the idea of reaching out to a food pantry for help. “We’ve completely jettisoned all registration procedures,” said Stelmack. “If you’re in need and you come here, we will serve you.”
Bread of Life’s evening meal program has temporarily changed to a grab-and-go boxed meal program at the First Baptist Church. Back in March, an average of about 70 people would come for dinner. Now, roughly 120 people are stopping every night to pick up a meal. “Anyone is welcome,” said Kelly. “You come through and get a meal and off you go.”
Bread of Life has also expanded its delivery program and is now dropping off hundreds of boxes of groceries each month to people who are self-isolating, elderly or disabled. “The boxes are packed by volunteers and delivered by volunteers,” said Stelmack.
Bread of Life has always depended on volunteer power to run its different programs. But when the coronavirus shut everything down in the middle of March, people who volunteered with groups organized by churches, civic organizations and businesses were also shut down. “We were scrambling for a while, but eventually people who were temporarily laid off started to show up to help,” said Stelmack. “The response has been tremendous.”
Stelmack also said that people seem more confident about their ability to protect their health with face masks, hand sanitizers and social distancing. “Everybody has concerns but overriding that is the concern for people who are the most vulnerable and the hardest hit by COVID-19,” she said.
“The frontline staff has been incredible,” added Kelly, “We keep adding new programs and they keep going.”
Malden and the surrounding communities are also coming through with all types of much-needed and much-appreciated donations. Stelmack said some people will phone in a substantial takeout order from a local restaurant and have it delivered to Bread of Life.
“A woman just donated meals from the Dockside restaurant,” said Stelmack. “We packaged them up and handed them out.” Other restaurants just send food over. Pisa Pizza is known for delivering stacks of pizzas, and Townline Luxury Lanes recently reached out with trays and trays of food.
“Restaurants are struggling but despite that they are still cooking meals and donating,” said Kelly.
Individual residents are also coming through with donations of home-cooked meals.
Although the past several months have been a non-stop challenge, Bread of Life staff will keep pushing forward. “When you are faced with adverse circumstances, you learn from the hardship and find new ways of doing things,” said Stelmack.
Bread of Life hopes to soon have an entirely new way of doing things with its Under One Roof project, which will combine 14 units of affordable housing with a new kitchen, food pantry and dining room on the site of its current building on Eastern Avenue. Metro North Housing Corporation is funding and managing the housing portion of the project. Bread of Life is fundraising to cover the cost of the remainder of the facility. “We’re almost there; we have about $1 million left to raise,” said Kelly. “We feel very optimistic that we will be celebrating 40 years and a new beginning with a groundbreaking in November.”
Although Stelmack takes pride in Bread of Life’s ability to adjust to situations and make do, she feels it is time for the organization to have a new home in a proper space. “It’s time finally,” she said. “We’ve always been able to adapt and serve. With this project, we’ll be able to adapt and thrive.”
—For more information about Bread of Life or to make a donation to the food pantry or the Under One Roof project, go to http://www.breadoflifemalden.org/.