Eos Grantees in the News
Preventing Hunger, One Call at a Time
Food stamps. Food pantries. Soup kitchens. Many programs exist to help families facing hunger, but accessing them can seem overwhelming. Enter Project Bread’s FoodSource Hotline, an Eos Foundation grantee. The hotline, which is the only information and referral service in Massachusetts for people facing hunger, operates six days a week (800-645-8333) and is a free resource for all state residents. Fielding more than 37,000 calls per year, the need has grown substantially as the economy has worsened. From July to September 2008, calls to the hotline were 22% higher than the previous year.
The FoodSource Hotline can help hungry families in 160 languages—from Arabic to Cambodian, and Russian to Vietnamese—and often links them with a translator in less than 30 seconds. Assistance is also available for deaf callers at 800-377-1292.
Connecting hungry families with resources is especially critical in the Bay State, which has the lowest food stamp participation rate in the country. Fewer than 50% of eligible residents receive food stamps, many because they don’t know they’re eligible, or how to apply. And data from a Project Bread-supported hunger screening project in seven low-income neighborhoods reveal that more than 70 percent of the families have run out of money to make a meal. Nearly 1/3 of the families say they cut the size of their children’s meals or a child missed a meal because there was not enough money. The FoodSource Hotline is an important tool in ensuring that families suffering from the economic crisis don’t have to suffer from hunger, as well.
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