The Centre Street Food Pantry began with a handful of volunteers responding to a few people coming to the doors of Trinity Parish in Newton Centre seeking food. The Church provided a room to stock some food, and after the group incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization in 2010, it began serving eight to ten families each week. As more people came, the group expanded its space to a larger room, created a market, and expanded service to other nearby geographic communities, serving 20 families each week.
From 2010-2018, 70 percent of those served were Newton residents; 60% were seniors; very few were families; 10-20% were chronically food insecure and or had medical disabilities; and the other 20% were those who recently lost jobs or were in transition.
Rose Saia came to the Centre Street Food Pantry as the Executive Director in 2019, and by that time, the Food Pantry was serving 65 households. When the Covid pandemic hit, the Pantry moved outside to offer curbside pickup of pre-packaged food. Saia said that on that first Tuesday after the Covid shutdown, they served 85 families, and the numbers kept going up. Now they serve between 256 and 290 families per week — or about 1000 families per month, since clients visit the pantry only once a month. Via curbside pick-up, clients and are provided with non-perishable foods, fresh produce, bread, and a cold order that includes milk, eggs, dairy, and frozen proteins with choices for vegetarians and gluten-free groceries.
The Centre Street Food Pantry is open to residents of Brookline, Newton, Needham, Watertown, Waltham, and Wellesley. Newton is their largest community, followed by Waltham, and Watertown. They serve 60,000 pounds of food each month and have a walk-in refrigerator outside. According to Saia, the Centre Street Food Pantry continues to register about 65 new families each month, and they estimate that they currently serve about 3,500 people each month.
Since 2019, the statistics have changed. Currently 60% of population served are seniors (primarily from Newton); 60% are families with children, and 35% of those families report to have five or more in the family. There is about a 70% overlap of people going to both the Newton Food Pantry and the Centre Street Pantry. Asian and Russian families are the top ethnicities, but the Centre Street Food Pantry is also seeing more individuals and families from Venezuela, Latin America, Haiti, Ukraine, and Syria. The Centre Street Food Pantry has translators available for clients speaking Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Saia reports that the Centre Street Food Pantry belongs to a collaborative, the Nutrition Security Program, headed by Lauren Lele of Newton Wellesley Hospital, whose members include social service workers for schools, Council on Aging members, and other individuals. The Pantry has a referral list to provide resources for clients who need assistance with other services, and their volunteers do their best to connect them to those resources.
Saia said Newton is a generous, socially minded, and caring community and credits the organization’s success and strength to their dedicated volunteers and generous donors who enable the Pantry to continue to expand their service to more individuals and families in need of healthy and fresh food.
The Centre Street Food Pantry is located at Trinity Parish of Newton Centre (11 Homer Street, Newton Centre) and is open every Tuesday from 1PM – 5:30PM and also on the third Saturday of every month, 11:30AM – 1PM. No appointment is needed, and they welcome those already registered as well as those who have never visited before. Groceries are apportioned based on family size. Centre Street Food Pantry Services are available to anyone in need of food, regardless of income, but as a USDA distribution agency, the Pantry will ask clients if they meet income guidelines set by the USDA.
