Photos courtesy of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Catherine's Message Dear Friends, The holidays often remind us of quality time spent with family around the dinner table. For many of our neighbors, how- ever, putting food on that table is a daily struggle. Nearly 500,000 people in Eastern Massachusetts don’t consistently know where their next meal is coming from. During one of the toughest times of the year, The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) annual Holiday Meal Drive pro- vides healthy food to families struggling with hunger. There are many ways you can make a difference in the life of someone in need. You can visit gbfb.org and start a Holiday Meal Drive fundraising team with your friends, family, or coworkers. You can also donate today to make an immediate impact. Every $20 you give during our Holiday Meal Drive will provide a healthy holiday meal to a family of five, like Marla’s, who you’ll learn more about inside. In this issue you’ll also read about a volunteer who helps keep our warehouse running smoothly, an app that connects food-insecure doctor’s patients to healthy food providers and learn about how we distributed 19 million healthy meals in the city of Boston alone last year. Thank you for your generous donation and support of our mission. Together, we can end hunger here. Sincerely, Catherine D’Amato President and CEO GBFB.org/our-programs LEARN MORE AT Your Donations Make a Difference in Dorchester While The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) delivers healthy food across 190 cities and towns in Massachusetts— from Cape Ann to Cape Cod— one of the biggest areas of need is right in our backyard. Roughly 1 in 6 people in Bos- ton are food insecure, mean- ing they don’t consistently know where their next meal is coming from. 2 More than 22,000 people a month receive food from one of GBFB’s member agencies in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. GBFB partners with 37 different pantries, meal programs, emergency shel- ters and other community organizations in the neighborhood. One of our biggest partners is the American Red Cross Food Pantry in Dorchester. David Andre, director of food and nutrition programs at the Red Cross, said that the pantry helps people of all ages across many demographics. “We’ve seen a 25 percent increase in seniors over the last two years, and our mobile markets reach a lot of young families,” David said. Gerson, 53, lives in Dorchester and goes to the pantry once a month to get food for his wife and five children. “I come here at 6 a.m. and wait on line until they open at 9 a.m.,” he said. “They treat you really good here,” he added. “They treat you like family.”