At the Walter Salvo House on Thursday, residents of the affordable senior living complex lined up inside the building’s community room, perusing several crates full of produce such as onions, carrots and Brussels sprouts.

Ruth von Goeler, a food access assistant with Grow Food Northampton, helped those in line package whatever produce they needed for preparing their upcoming holiday meals. Residents could help themselves to however much produce they wanted, but a special item was limited to one per person — packaged whole chicken, delivered from Easthampton’s Underline Farm.

“For folks who are food insecure, it’s hard to get all the fixings for Thanksgiving,” von Goeler said. “Generally, we only have produce and dairy, but we also do meat at these pop-up events.”

Grow Food Northampton’s Thanksgiving Pop-Up Mobile Farmer’s Market, which ran from Nov. 20 to Nov. 21, traveled to affordable residences across the city to provide fresh farm products to residents free of charge, allowing them a chance to prepare Thanksgiving meals with locally-grown produce and meats. Some the food was grown by GFN themselves, while meats were donated by River Valley Co-Op, C&S Grocery Wholesalers and Hatfield Beef.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, GFN’s Mobile Farmers’ Market has delivered food free of charge. The organization emphasized it was expanding its efforts this year due to a looming cut in the Healthy Incentives Program, a benefit for SNAP users that allows reimbursement when buying fresh fruits and vegetables.

Niki Lankowski, a communications manager with GFN, said one of the best features of the pop-up was to give residents control over what kinds of meals they prepared, allowing them to make their own decisions on what they want for a Thanksgiving dinner.

“People want to cook their own meals,” Lankowski said. “That’s part of the dignity of these programs.”

Salvo House resident Heidi Sousse said she enjoyed the event because she “lives off Brussels sprouts.”

“I like to cut them in half and cook them with garlic salt,” Sousse said. “Sometimes I like to add a little bacon.”

Debra Horton was also excited for the pop-up event, grabbing a bag of cranberries. “I’m thrilled to get cranberries,” Horton said. “I can use it with my Vitamix,” she added, referring to the brand of blender.

For Salvo resident Chris Gagne, the Grow Food Northampton pop-up constitutes a “blessing.”

“We get veggies we can’t buy on the outside,” Gagne said. “They do a fantastic job.”

Another benefit of the event, GFN members said, is the ability for the residents of these areas to interact with each other as a community.

“There’s nothing like food to bring people together,” von Goeler said.

In addition to Salvo House, the Mobile Farmer’s Market also delivered produce to locations such as Hampshire Heights, Meadowbrook Apartments, Cahill Apartments, Tobin Manor, Forsander Apartments, Michaels House and McDonald House.

Thanksgiving meals coming up

Though the mobile market concluded on Thursday, there are still other opportunities in the local area to get a warm meal for Thanksgiving.

At the Amherst Survival Center, located at 138 Sunderland Road in Amherst, is putting on its annual “Celebrating Native American Heritage and Giving Thanks to our Community” meal Wednesday from noon to 2:30 p.m.

The meal will feature both dine-in and to-go options with many of the traditional Thanksgiving fixings.

Then, the following day at 1 p.m., Not Bread Alone, a program of the Center for Human Development, will put on its Thanksgiving feast. That takes place at the First Congregational Church, 165 Main St., also in Amherst.

In Northampton, Manna Community Kitchen will hold its annual community meal at Edwards Church, held on Thanksgiving Day beginning at 12 p.m. and lasting for two hours. Free delivery of a meal from Manna is also available for residents of Northampton, Williamsburg, Haydenville, Westhampton, Southampton, Easthampton, Whatley, Hatfield and Hadley. More than 1,000 meals were served by Manna last year when combining both in-person and delivery meals.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.