FCCMP Community Update | May 28, 2026
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to share some exciting updates since our pause of operations on May 8th, and we are happy to report major progress.
Since our announcement about pausing our Greenfield and Northfield meal site operations, our board of directors and administrative team have been tirelessly working to assess the needs of these sites. Meanwhile, the response from our community—checking in, offering help, cheering us on—has been galvanizing. The list of neighbors stepping up in support of FCCMP's mission to fight food insecurity is growing every day! Many thanks to:
- Blessed Trinity Parish
- The Center for Self Reliance
- Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts
- Dean's Beans Coffee
- Eaglebrook School
- The Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew
- First Church of Deerfield
- Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
- Franklin County Sheriff’s Office
- Greenfield Cooperative Bank
- Greenfield Family Inn and Shelter
- Greenfield Savings Bank
- Green Field’s Market
- Lorraine's Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry of Chicopee
- Mayor Ginny Desorgher of Greenfield
- Northfield Mount Hermon School
- Opioid Task Force
- Representative Susannah Whipps
- Sabra Billings
- Salvation Army Corps Center of Greenfield
- Second Congregational Church
- Senator Jo Comerford
- Stone Soup Café
- Trinitarian Congregational Church of Northfield
- United Way of Franklin and Hampshire Region
- Whipp's Inc
Our conversations have been wide-ranging and deeply encouraging—from receiving invaluable advice and fresh ideas (e.g. take-out versus family style meals and trauma informed staff training), to accepting generous offers of funding and collaboration (stay tuned for updated volunteer opportunities, for instance!). Every day, we are reminded of how much this community cares about fighting hunger together.
Throughout this period, we were able to keep our Orange Food Pantry and our Orange and Turners Falls meal sites open, serving our neighbors without interruption. And for our Greenfield community, we developed new online and print resources to help people find pantry and meal offerings, day to day in the area—because FCCMP and our partners were determined that no one should go without a meal during our hiatus. We thank the Salvation Army, Second Congregational Church, Stone Soup Cafe, and our Turners Falls meal site for stepping up to provide meals for Greenfield during our pause.
ANNUAL CAMPAIGN UPDATE
We are also thrilled to share that our Annual Campaign has surpassed the halfway mark, reaching $93,668 as of May 28. This incredible generosity is a testament to how much this community believes in what we do. Half of our budget relies on donations. So, we are very relieved to be back on track with fundraising.
GREENFIELD MEAL SITE RELAUNCH
Through this outpouring of support, we have been hard at work developing a relaunch of our Greenfield meal site. This relaunch will include a thoughtful refresh of policies, procedures, and staffing, designed to make our flagship, county-seat location more sustainable than ever—better positioned to serve a growing number of clients with greater efficiency, safety, and quality.
Our hope is to reopen the Greenfield site in mid-June, provided everything continues to go smoothly. Following that, we will turn our attention to our Northfield site and explore similar opportunities for renewal there.
None of this would be possible without you. Thank you for your patience, your generosity, and your belief in our mission: "to work in partnership with the community to alleviate hunger."
Please stay tuned for more updates—the best is yet to come.
In solidarity,
Isabel “Charlie” Spencer
Interim Executive Director, Franklin County Community Meals Program