The important role the volunteers would play in keeping the Survival Center open was clear from the very beginning. At first, the Center was run completely by volunteers. They worked in the pantry putting together food boxes with clients, gathered donated food, sorted clothing, and served on the board of directors. With growing numbers of people coming to the Center, the need for a paid part-time coordinator was quickly apparent. Two people were hired to share the job (joint salary $100 per month).

Six months after opening in May of 1980, the Center had a new home — the basement of the old Vernon Street School in Northampton. Although roomy, the cellar location with its long flight of stairs proved impractical. And serving some 75 families a week was difficult and frustrating. There was never enough food for everyone who came.

In October of 1982, the Mayor of Northampton, David Musante, persuaded a local landlord to donate a rent-free space in the old St. Regis building at 76 Pleasant Street. Once again, it was moving time for the Survival Center. While the move gave the Center more space — and even an elevator for transporting food — two things did not change: a shortage of money and the need for a dependable source of food. Compounding the growing difficulties was the lack of volunteers to keep the pantry operating.

By June of 1983, the Survival Center was in a crisis; it had lost its rent-free home on Pleasant Street — a devastating and demoralizing blow for the barebones operation. The Board voted to close the Survival Center until more community support and dependable sources of food could be found.

Five months later, in November of 1983, the Survival Center was back in business down the street at 441 Pleasant Street. At first, a small band of volunteers kept the operation alive. Fortified by a $2,000 grant from the Northampton City Council, the Center soon began taking steps toward becoming a more financially stable operation that was backed by wide community support. The Center achieved non-profit status, conducted its first fund-raising drive, and received its first Community Development Block Grant (federal money awarded by the City Council).

Joining the Western Massachusetts Food Bank was a turning point in the Center’s history. For the first time, the Survival Center had a dependable source of nutritious food. In 1985, the Northampton Survival Center became a member of the Hampshire Community United Way — a ringing testimony to the progress the Center had made since its founding. During this period, the Center’s first full-time program director was hired, and the carrot logo designed.

It took more than six years, but finally in January of 1986, the Survival Center had a home at 265 Prospect Street, a building provided by the City of Northampton.

With the hard work and help of the volunteers and local business, the space was turned into a welcoming and attractive facility. As the number of persons served continued to grow, additional financial sources were needed to meet rising costs. Grants from Hampshire County Human Services, F.E.M.A (Federal Emergency Management Act), and donations from the town of Easthampton were added to contributions from individuals in the 15 communities whose residents were served by the Center. The annual Benefit Boogie, first held in March of 1988, brought supporters together to raise money and have fun. More and more organizations from every segment of the community, including schools and religious groups, showed their support of the Center’s work through donations and conducting food collections throughout the year.

By the early 2000s, the Center was running two pantries – one in Northampton and one in Goshen, and was distributing significantly more food to clients with every year thanks to the help of hundreds of volunteers. The operations had outgrown the building, and more space was clearly needed. In 2010 the Center expanded into the remaining adjacent garage bays of the building, and entered a generous 30-year lease with the City of Northampton. A Capital Campaign in 2010 raised $1.2M to fund the complete renovation of the expanded space, with construction expertly overseen by D. A. Sullivan & Sons and completed in 2011.

Take a look at the exciting building renovation as it unfolded in from October, 2010 to April, 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43NHXQfZoDI

In February, 2019, we reconfigured the interior pantry space to feature the fresh produce that has become the cornerstone of our offerings. Check out our homemade video designed to help volunteers and clients feel oriented to the new space and procedures before they arrived.

In March 2020 we initially moved our food distribution outside for several weeks, but as client numbers began soaring, our long and narrow building didn’t allow for safe distancing indoors to meet the new demand, and many volunteers chose to stay home for safety. In early April 2020 we began partnering with Grow Food Northampton and Community Action Pioneer Valley to create a Community Food Distribution Project, which enabled us to meet the growing need under the safest possible conditions. Nearby Jackson Street School proved ideal in providing a temporary solution with a  large cafeteria offering adequate indoor space for social distancing for staff and volunteers, along with a large circular driveway that enabled an orderly flow of traffic for clients.

After 18 weeks, in August 2020 we moved food distribution back to our Prospect Street location, with Grow Food Northampton continuing to deliver to over a dozen low-income, senior-, and disabled-housing sites around the city two days a week. This partnership, in place until November 2022, ensured that members of the community experiencing food insecurity had access to nutritious food throughout the pandemic.

In November 2022 we integrated delivery into our internal programming. We now offer food through four modes designed to promote individual safety, maximize food distribution, and meet a variety of client needs. As of the end of 2022, those four modes are:

1. On-site distribution to clients with a socially-distanced drive-through program at our pantries in Northampton and Goshen.
2. Housing site deliveries to low-income, senior, and disabled housing.
3. Individual housing deliveries to clients unable to get to the Center due to disability or lack of transportation.
4. Curbside pickup, which allows clients to choose their groceries from our online pantry and reserve appointments to get them at the Center (brought to their car by a volunteer).

Click here for photos and information about operating our Community Food Distribution Program from Jackson Street Elementary School during the COVID-19 pandemic (April to August 2020).