Our mission is to end hunger and its root causes in the Beverly Community. We believe that empowering the individual; giving them the tools they need to help themselves, is the most effective way to achieve this goal. In essence, we provide, "A hand up, not a hand out."

Description:
In order to empower the clients with whom we work, we provide a myriad of emergency services including: our Food Pantry, our Serve Food Coop, our Community Outreach Programs that include resource and referral, advocacy, GED test prep, ESL classes, Homework Helpers, Adult Literacy classes, our Thrift Shop, our Community Gardens, our Clear Point Horizons Program, our Youth and Technology Program,and our Summer Playground Lunch Program.

Our Community Outreach Programs provide advocacy for those who need it most. Common resources include help "navigating the system" i.e. paperwork for child support or employment, emergency funds for utilities, phone usage and a career counselor for securing employment, and assistance in finding housing. In addition, we provide a number of different services including: a Homework Helpers Program, a Women's Support Group, a Furniture donation Program, a Holiday Gift Giving Program, an online Tax Filing Program, a Back-to-School free supplies Program, and a Summer is for Reading book distribution Program.

History:
Begun as an outreach effort by the First Baptist Church in the mid eighties, the "church pantry" grew as the occasional needy family grew to a steady stream of families trying to make ends meet. The first "part time pantry coordinator" evolved into a full time position as Beverly Bootstraps Food Pantry incorporated separately with its own Board of Directors two years later.

Beverly Bootstraps Bootstraps Community Services is now a broad-based interfaith and community effort. Our Community Outreach Program was begun in 1995 and continues to develop and implement volunteer-driven empowerment programs.

Contact person: Thomas Gifford, Executive Director, (phone), (email)
Office fax number: (978) 927-1553

Address:

371 Cabot St. Beverly, MA 01915 (See a map)

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Beverly Depot,   Walk distance (in minutes): 25   Nearest Bus Stop: Cabot Street Stop- in front of Beverly National Bank, 15 minute walk For maps or information, please see http://www.mbta.com