Cambridge Community Foundation
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04/24/2026
LONG BEFORE THE SNAP CRISIS, more and more people were coming to the Cambridge Community Center food pantry every month. “The line used to be around the block,” says LB Battle, CCC’s operations manager. “It broke our hearts to see people coming at 8 or 9 in the morning in the cold when we didn’t open till 1 p.m.”
Through our Food Access and Security Initiative, the consulting firm More Than Food was brought in to share best practices. One idea CCC adopted was a randomized number system to shorten the lines and wait times.
Today, CCC’s food pantry is organized around 22 “stations” lined up on folding tables, each stocked with identical bags of groceries. As people gather out front before the doors open, volunteer Sylvester Nicholas, 86, hands out cards numbered 1 to 120, allowing people to move through the line in small groups instead of competing to be served first.
The system transformed both the experience and the efficiency of going to the pantry. And for Sylvester, it means more than calming people’s nerves and shortening wait times. “I can’t sit at home doing nothing all day,” he says. “This gives me a purpose.”
📸 Sylvester Nicholas at the Cambridge Community Center. Photo by Mark Ostow.
Check out the full CCF 2025 Annual Report at https://cambridgecf.org/2025-annual-report/
ONE IN THREE CAMBRIDGE RESIDENTS experiences some form of food insecurity. Hunger is a persistent and urgent pressure in our community, even as Cambridge benefits from a tremendous group of organizations working to improve access to healthy food. As more families turn to pantries and food programs, those organizations have been asked to do more, move faster, and stretch limited resources further. CCF saw an opportunity to strengthen the system and, with it, the entire social safety net. Rather than focusing on any single organization, we invested in the connections among them, supporting the people, infrastructure, and shared practices that allow food to move efficiently.
In 2023, CCF launched the Food Access and Security Initiative, investing $1.1 million over three years to support eight food organizations and the Cambridge Food Pantry Network to strengthen core operations, expand programs that reach families directly, and reinforce the logistics that keep food moving across the city. We also bring our food-system partners together regularly so they can share best practices and bolster the emergency food pipeline together.
Stay tuned this week for three stories exemplifying that impact.
Check out the full CCF 2025 Annual Report at https://cambridgecf.org/2025-annual-report/
📸 by Mark Ostow
04/15/2026
Three days left! ✨
Our Imagined in Cambridge! Social Innovation Award gives winners $5,000 to grow their innovative projects and create real change in their community.
Individuals and small groups are encouraged to apply; no 501c3 required. Apply now — the opportunity closes this Friday, April 17!
https://cambridgecf.org/imagined-in-cambridge-award
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