Profile: Deacon Frank

Rev. Francis J. Ryan, otherwise known as Deacon Frank, and his wife, Kathleen, founded Take and Eat, Inc. in 2003 with the intention of enabling faith-based community organizations to prepare and deliver hot meals to homebound seniors on weekends and three-day holidays free of charge. This was to supplement the government funded Meals-on-Wheels Program that serves seniors on Monday through Friday. Take and Eat requires participants to be over 60 years of age and have a chronic physical disability that keeps them from leaving home to shop and prevents them from preparing meals to meet daily nutritional needs. This addresses a national problem of homebound elders not having food to eat on weekends.

Take and Eat’s first meal was prepared and delivered on Easter Sunday in 2003, to 80 elders in the St. Anthony’s Parish of North Adams. Take and Eat now delivers meals to over 700 clients and functions in the Williamstown, North Adams, Adams, Cheshire, and Pittsfield communities. To do this it takes a strong volunteer base which Take and Eat uses to run the program. Currently 23 faith-based organizations of all denominations take part, with 700 volunteers contributing their time and effort. Take and Eat estimates that it has delivered over 40,000 meals over the course of the first three years and its client base is growing. This year alone, it has already delivered 22,500 meals as of early November. Take and Eat is also expanding this coming year with new start-up programs in Franklin County and Chicopee.

The program’s major source of funding comes from the Annual Catholic Appeal of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, MA. By using volunteers and The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Take and Eat delivers meals at less than a dollar each. Deacon Frank said that the cost to the government’s Meals-on-Wheels is approximately $6.00 per meal.

Deacon Frank attributes the success of the program to the people who run it. “People want to help. People love it and everything is in place. Recipes are on the internet.” Most churches have an underutilized kitchen which can be used. If any church is interested in the Take and Eat program, you can contact Deacon Frank at 413.664.1041.

Through his participation in Target:Hunger Deacon Frank heard about Summer Food Service Programs (SFSP) from Project Bread, another Target:Hunger partner. SFSPs are federally funded programs that provide free meals to low-income children during the summer when school is out. They usually are run as part of a school, park, public pool, neighborhood center or other local program. Only one child in five who qualifies for free school meals takes part in a SFSP.

During this past summer Deacon Frank established a program to go with activities around St. Anthony’s Parish such as field trips and classes. Both breakfast and lunch were served to an average of 51 children per day. Project Bread supplied a small grant used to purchase a refrigerator to hold milk.

The program was marketed through the North Adam’s network of community programs, radio ads, and the school system.