Massachusetts Bay Community College Mobile Market Re-Opens!

Massachusetts Bay Community College was a partner of The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) from 2016 until the beginning of the pandemic when they had to close their mobile market in early March 2020. In the summer of 2022, with more classes in person and more students on campus, MBCC staff reached out to GBFB to request a reopening — inspired in part by the food bank’s focus on legislation to reduce college hunger. It took a few months to figure out the logistics (setting up scheduling, registering participants, and getting food safety details squared away), the market reopened in November 2022!

MBCC students graduate on a roughly two-year cycle, so this resource is feeling fresh for students and like homecoming for seasoned staff supporters. GBFB’s Mobile Markets play an important role in our ability to feed Eastern Massachusetts, bringing healthy food directly to high-need communities. With 42% of Massachusetts students at two-year colleges facing food insecurity as of 2019, and hunger increasing broadly across the state since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re grateful for MBCC’s partnership to bring much-needed resources to campus. The market currently provides about 250 students with fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Massachusetts Bay Community College team, Elizabeth Blumberg and Lauren Curley, go above and beyond to meet the needs of their students. GBFB delivers food to the main campus in Wellesley for the central distribution. MBCC staff then transport food to the Ashland and Framingham campuses to make sure students at all three locations have access to healthy, nutritious food. This “hub and spoke” model enables students to more conveniently access this important resource between classes. Thank you, MBCC staff, for getting resources to where they most need to be.

To learn more about Mobile Market programs please reach out to the Mobile Market team at: programs@gbfb.org or by phone at 617-427-5200.