There were smiles all around last Wednesday as Y members, donors, board members, partners, volunteers, and associates (not to mention Marty Bass from WJZ!), gathered to cut the ribbon on the new Fresh Mart food pantry at the Y in Pasadena.
Launched in partnership with the Caring Cupboard, Maryland Food Bank, McCormick Flavor for Life and Amerigroup, the new Y Fresh Mart supports community members experiencing food insecurity in Anne Arundel County.
And although the act of cutting a ribbon is symbolic, the tangible support the Y Fresh Mart will provide the local community is very real. Although most people would assume that a place like Anne Arundel County wouldn’t have much of an issue with food insecurity, over 51,000 people are living there who are dealing with that very problem. So, it is no surprise that since the opening, we have seen a steady stream of community members visit this critical community resource and take home canned goods, bread, cereal, meat, rice, pasta, fresh produce, and more, at no cost to them.
Access to healthy food is very much in sync with the Y’s values and mission, and this new Y Fresh Mart marks a critical expansion of our food distribution work. Since the pandemic's start, we have distributed over a million meals through our first food pantry (the Michelle Becote-Jackson Y Fresh Mart at the Y in Druid Hill) and large-scale food distribution efforts at Y family centers, Head Start locations and our Community School sites. We are currently developing plans to open a third Y Fresh Mart at another Y family center by the beginning of next year. To find out more about the Y Fresh Mart, please visit our website.
That said, the energy of the ribbon cutting was truly inspiring and we couldn’t be more thankful to everyone who helped make it possible, including our generous partners, funders and the Y associates (among them, Shannon Kowal, Matt Lewis, Derryck Fletcher, Robyn Vance and Donald Eaddy) who make everything seem way more seamless than it actually is!
All the best,
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland