The Phoenix Food Hub
The Phoenix Food Hub is a non profit organization in Lynn located in the GLSS building that helps you get resources relating to food and nutrition. In an interview with the Phoenix Food Hub’s event coordinator, Eunice Lopez and their nutrition program manager Nick Anander, Eunice explains more in depth. “It's a place where you can get resources pertaining to food, whether it be a list of food dispensaries, getting you connected with help with SNAP application, and providing additional support for other resources around the area,” she says. Eunice continues on about their nutritional services. “We have our nutritionist, so sometimes we will get referrals and they want to speak to the nutritionist,” she says. “She does a general nutrition screening and also an evaluation for consumers that want to either better their health, learn how to read labels, that, you know, just want some advice or don't know where to start on how to eat healthy.”
The Phoenix Food Hub’s specific programs they provide are varied. For instance, Eunice talks about an upcoming cooking program called Step Towards Health. “So, it's free adult classes with cooking demonstrations, and we are partnering with UMass to do that,” she says. “They can learn to cook specifically to better their health.” The class will start later in the month and have 7 lessons that cover reading food labels and ways to be more active. “There is another program,” continues Nick, “that we partnered with the Greater Boston Food Bank, and we offer the mobile market. The third Friday of every month, the greater Boston Food Bank drops off bags of healthy groceries, shelf stable groceries, and we hand that out to consumers throughout the community.” Another thing they offer is free vaccines every Friday from 9 to 12 a.m. “Through MGB (Mass General Brigham), they send a van here and in our space, they do vaccines for both flu and COVID as well as blood pressure screenings.”
In order to learn more about the Phoenix Food Hub go to https://phoenixfoodhub.org/, where you will find ways to contact and access their resources. To learn about the programs they have coming up, you can stay updated with the GLSS Facebook, which covers the Phoenix Food Hub’s events.