<p>The Family Pantry of Cape Cod's mission is to provide food and clothing to ALL in need.</p><p>It is hard to believe that there is a hunger problem on this beautiful peninsula where we live, but when you think of the employment opportunities and compare them to the cost of living it is easy to see that there is a disconnect. This problem is not unique to Cape Cod. A recent article in The Greater Boston Food Bank's Harvest newsletter discussed a Feeding America landmark study that showed how many families in eastern Massachusetts are going without regular meals. The meal gap is huge, and what is most significant is that 47% of people in need are not able to receive government benefits such as food stamps (now called SNAP benefits). The reason for this is that their household incomes are above the federal poverty level. </p><p>The Family Pantry of Cape Cod is committed to helping to provide some of those extra meals to people who need them. In 1989 when the founding fathers created The Family Pantry of Cape Cod, they were guided by a few principles that we still hold true to today. One such principle is that we are open to anyone who needs our help. There are many pantries on the Cape that are specific to a certain Town or a few Towns. We are the largest pantry on Cape Cod that is open to anyone in need. A second principle was that we would always choose to err on the side of generosity.</p><p>One of the statistics that often takes people by surprise is that approximately 2/3 of the clients who come to us for food have at least one person in the household who is working and in many cases there are two people working. They don't make quite enough to cover the cost of living here. In 2025 we distributed over 167,000 bags of groceries and 50 tons of gently used clothing. </p><p>The Family Pantry of Cape Cod works to not only provide people with food but also to make sure that we primarily stock nutritious food items. We are fortunate to be a member agency of The Greater Boston Food Bank .  The Food Bank ranks each of the food items offered as green, yellow or red.   The goal is to have the majority of foods offered in the green category, ensuring the highest possible nutrition for our families.   </p><p> </p>