Service-based learning at the Food Bank this summer.
SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible individuals and families across the country, allowing them to put healthy food on their tables.
If your New Year’s resolution is to help strengthen our community by volunteering your time and talents, The Food Bank has a number of opportunities available for you throughout the year, including a series of Family Volunteer Days continuing this weekend in partnership with Hilltown Families!
Support Hilltown Families: Vote for Hilltown Families as “Best Blog” in the Valley Advocate’s Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll for 2016!
You have an opportunity to take action and support our community. In partnership with Hilltown Families, The Food Bank will be hosting our January Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, January 16 from 9 – 11 a.m. All ages are welcome, as families are invited to help prepare food to be distributed to our neighbors in need across Western Massachusetts. Reservations are required .
You have an opportunity to take action and support our community. In partnership with Hilltown Families, The Food Bank will be hosting a special “Giving at Thanksgiving” Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, November 14 from 9 – 11 a.m. This will be a fun opportunity to learn about the issue of food insecurity in our region and the impact it has on the community. All ages are welcome, as families are invited to tour The Food Bank and help prepare food to be distributed to pantries and meal sites across Western Massachusetts.
In partnership with Hilltown Families, The Food Bank will be hosting a special Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, October 31 from 9 – 11:30am… join us!
There is more than enough food in America to feed every man, woman and child. Yet, here in Western Massachusetts, more than 235,000 people are at risk of hunger and health problems that come with not having enough nutritious food to eat. As individuals, charities, businesses and government, we all have a role to play in getting more food to people in need. Together, we can solve hunger and help keep our communities healthy and strong.
Volunteering together teaches children positive values, like kindness, empathy and tolerance, and opens up channels of communication between parent and child. Engaging children in community service can increase their participation as future volunteers, helping to create more resilient and sustainable communities.
In partnership with Hilltown Families, families are invited to attend a series of monthly volunteer sessions at The Food Bank of Western MA where they will help sort food, take part in educational activities, and learn how to take actions to help fight hunger. Our next Family Volunteer Day is Saturday, Sept 12!
You can take action to support our community during Hunger Action Month September is Hunger Action Month, a time when the Feeding America nationwide network of food banks unite and ask everyone to take action to fight hunger in their community. It is your opportunity to join a movement that has a real and lasting impact on our effort to feed more people than ever before. Hunger affects communities all across our… Read More
During the summer months of June, July and August, food pantries and meal sites across Western Mass. see a 45% increase in visits over the holiday season. Find out how your family can support The Food Bank this summer by volunteering together while learning about the issue of food insecurity in our region and the impact it has on the community.
Families have a unique opportunity to support The Food Bank this summer through our Family Volunteer Days! Through service-based learning, participants learn about nutrition and the importance of food security. Giving people access to fresh healthy food is an important objective we all should support. See how your family can help and how much impact you can make!
Your entire family can take the first steps towards supporting your community, and find out just how much fun volunteering can be. The Food Bank and Hilltown Families are holding a special Pot-Luck Breakfast Family Volunteer Day at our Hatfield facility on Saturday, May 9 from 9 – 11:30 a.m. Bring a favorite dish to share. You will have the opportunity to learn about hunger in our region, as well as helping to prepare food to be distributed to pantries and meal sites across Western Massachusetts. Pre-registration is required for this free community service event…
April is National Volunteer Month and there are countless GREAT reasons to volunteer with your family — meeting people, helping people, building community… The Food Bank of Western Mass & Hilltown Families Family Volunteer Day checks all those boxes and so much more. Read on and see how your family can help.
Currently, an estimated 50 million people across The United States are food insecure – a truly unsettling statistic. National Nutrition Month challenges us to take pause and consider the absolute fundamental importance of eating, and eating smartly. While wonderful organizations such as The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts have this issue on the front burner constantly, their very own Chris Wojcik outlines why we need to always be aware of food security and learn how we can do something to help. Hilltown Families is proud to partner with The Food Bank, hosting a very special community engaging volunteer day. Read on for more information.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts & Hilltown Families present Family Volunteer Days! Over the years, Hilltown Families has partnered with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in several ways, offering families in the region opportunities to engage in service-based learning while volunteering together as a family in support of food security in our region. We’ve organized a field trip and a couple of virtual food drives and told you how you… Read More
The insightful person who said that Western MA was the bread basket of Massachusetts absolutely nailed it! There are incredible things happening in agriculture in the western part of the state, in the areas of sustainability and organic growing- all stemming from a strong agrarian tradition. Western MA agriculture is showcased broadly across the many late summer events that occur in the region. Here families can celebrate the local agri-culture and local food through learning opportunities, where children are afforded opportunities to exhibit projects and develop their multidisciplinary learning.
Food Security in Summer Months in Western MA For children across America, the end of school means the end of book reports and spelling tests, and the end of school breakfast and lunch-their most reliable source of nutrition. In Western Massachusetts, 38,870 kids don’t always know where they will get their next meal. That’s one out of every five kids in the region. Across the country, more than 16 million children live… Read More
On Saturday, Sept 15th, Hilltown Families partnered with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts for a field trip that combined both service-based and community-based learning. Our field trip involved a tour of The Food Bank in Hatfield, MA, led by The Food Bank’s Education Coordinator, Molly Coon. Families got to see the facility up-close and learn how The Food Bank operates, who it serves and individuals can support their mission. The group played… Read More
Hilltown Families Field Trip The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Saturday, September 15th at 1:30pm At the beginning of the summer we wrote about the benefits of families, schools and organizations taking an organized field trip The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in our post, Visit The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts: A Community-Based Educational Field Trip for Kids. We mentioned that Hilltown Families would be organizing a field trip in September… Read More
Hilltown Families collaborated with The Food Bank of Western MA in compiling a list of kids books on the topic of food security/scarcity for their Youth Action Hunger program. We asked our readers to share their favorite children’s book that touches on the topics of hunger, soup kitchens, food banks, homelessness, etc. See what titles our readers had to recommended, both for children and adults…
Visit The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts: A Community-Based Educational Field Trip for Kids The summer or fall is a great time to bring your children to visit The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, along with their friends, school groups or clubs to learn more about an organization that plays a BIG role in our communities. There are 350 local organizations, including pantries, kitchens, shelters, youth programs, and senior centers, who rely… Read More