Food program updates highlight community response meeting

By Adam Swift

The Revere Community Response Network online meetings were begun more than three years ago as the city worked with local organizations to deal with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Those meetings continue today, with Acting Mayor Patrick Keefe stating they are a valuable resource to spread information and help those in need in the community.

The most recent meeting took place on Monday, highlighted with information on food distribution and market programs in the city.

“The Food for Free program has been moved over to the Revere City Hall parking lot on Fridays as of about three weeks ago,” said Lauren Buck, the city’s public health director. “We are working out the kinks over there, but it seems to be going well.”

The Food for Free boxes, which are available for Revere residents, were previously distributed out of 200 Winthrop Ave. on Thursdays.

“It’s for Revere residents, we register people and then they can come pick up the box,” said Buck. “It’s a very low threshold, so you don’t have to have much documentation to be able to get the box.”

Buck noted that there are also four more mobile markets taking place this year in Sandler Square to round out the summer farmers market schedule.

Those markets are on August 19, Sept. 2, Sept. 16, and Sept. 30 beginning at 10 a.m. There will be a uniform exchange and book bag giveaway for students at the August 19 market, Buck said.

WIC, senior vouchers, and SNAP benefits can all be used at the Sandler Square markets, Buck added.

Jean Granick of the Cambridge Health Alliance also gave an update on the monthly CHA Revere mobile markets. About 500 households took part in the most recent market on Saturday, August 5, Granick said.

Granick noted that residents do not have to be CHA patients to take part in the market. The markets are typically on the first Saturday of the month, but the next one will be on Saturday, Sept. 9 due to Labor Day weekend.

“I appreciate everything everyone has been doing, and let’s keep doing it,” Keefe said of the collaboration between departments and organizations in the city highlighted during the Community Response Network meetings.