As Valerie Hudson settles into her role as the new executive director of the Franklin County Community Meals Program, she believes a large part of her job, and the job of the program’s volunteer coordinators, is to be an inviting presence for the community.

“A friendly face can fix anything bad sometimes,” Hudson said.

For what cannot be fixed by a friendly face, Hudson hopes to expand the reach of the Franklin County Community Meals Program.

Hudson is interested in addressing the root causes of hunger in addition to providing food for residents in need, mentioning she feels inspired by the culinary training program offered at Stone Soup Café in Greenfield. Additionally, the organization is in the process of opening a new meal site in Shelburne Falls.

“There’s so many pockets of communities that need assistance, so we’re looking forward to all-over expansion of our meal sites,” Hudson explained. “We’re at least adding one this year.”

Hudson took over the position in May, after a three-month gap between executive directors. During the interim period, Operations Director Meghan Williams filled in.

Hudson is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley, where she studied human rights. After graduating, she worked at a variety of nonprofits on the West Coast before moving to western Massachusetts to work for Prospect Meadow Farm in Hatfield, a vocational program for individuals with disabilities that is run by ServiceNet.

Initially, Hudson was interested in working as a meal site coordinator for the Franklin County Community Meals Program. But, when she went to apply, she saw that the executive director position was open and decided to turn in an application for that role, too.

Looking ahead, Hudson is passionate about using her position as executive director to strengthen the community.

“A lot of our work deals with neighbors helping neighbors,” Hudson said. “And I feel that’s really important to maintain resilience in the community, especially right now, when a lot of people are experiencing a financial crisis, a health crisis. There needs to be options and resources available to them, and the only way they’re going to do that is if they talk to their neighbor … so we’re trying to connect the community.”

Bridging the gap

In addition to offering meal sites in Greenfield, Turners Falls, Orange and Northfield, as well as a food pantry in Orange, the Franklin County Community Meals Program offers a week of meals between the end of summer lunch programs and the start of the school year.

In the early 1990s, the program began offering free lunches to Franklin County residents who relied on free or reduced school lunch during the school year, but were left with a lack of resources during the summer months. Later, this work was taken over by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program. However, gaps between summer food programs and the school year left some community members hungry.

Looking to solve this problem, the Franklin County Community Meals Program began offering bagged lunches during these gaps last year. Hudson said the hope is to expand the program to reach more families this year.

“We … ran it last year, but nobody really knew about it,” Hudson said, explaining that roughly 1,000 meals were served in the 2023 program.

This year, the organization hopes to serve between 1,500 and 2,000 meals between the end of the USDA Summer Food Service Program and the start of the school year. Having begun on Aug. 19, meals are available daily from noon to 1 p.m. at Unity Park, Hillcrest Homes and Our Lady of Peace Church in Turners Falls, as well as at Oak Courts in Greenfield. Daily meals will continue until Aug. 27.

Next year, the organization plans to add a site in Orange to reach even more residents.

Food available includes a variety of sandwiches to choose from, fruits and vegetables, and beverages such as juice and milk.

Laurie MacDonald, head cook for the Orange meal site, bakes fresh bread that is used for the sandwiches.

“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “To get a nice … homemade sandwich … something that was made personally for them, that means a lot.”

MacDonald’s recipe involves letting the dough rise multiple times and leaving it overnight. Despite being time-consuming, she said the process is worthwhile for the bread’s texture and flavor.

“We’re providing as much as we can,” she added.

For more information about the Franklin County Community Meals Program’s offerings, visit fccmp.org.