BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Each month, “WBZ Cares” highlights a worthy non-profit organization and tells the story of what that organization does for the community. This month WBZ is profiling the Greater Boston Food Bank, which is working to end hunger in Eastern Massachusetts.
Erin Lynch went from needing the help of a food pantry to running a food pantry.
“I used to kinda joke that I was already sold on the idea of that I wanted to help other people. I didn’t need the life lesson,” she said.
Lynch grew up with parents who volunteered at a soup kitchen and she went to college for nonprofit management, so it caught her off guard when life circumstances left the single mom of two unable to pay her bills. Lynch found herself forgoing meals so her kids could eat.
“For dinner I had five chicken nuggets and I gave each of my children two, and I just found myself praying that they would get full off of the two each so that I could eat that last one. Things like that would happen often,” she stated.
Eventually, Lynch got a job as director of the Franklin Food Pantry which gets a lot of its food from the Greater Boston Food Bank. She's never forgotten the life lessons learned while she went through that tough time.
“Going through a time where you can’t afford to feed your children makes you very grateful for any job that you ever have for the rest of your life. And certainly that is magnified by being in a job where I can help other people who have been in a situation similar to mine,” Lynch said.
The most important lesson Lynch has learned?
“You really can never make assumptions about anything. You really never know from one day to the next what situation you are going to be in. I think all of us need to help when we can give help, and know that it’s okay to ask for help when we need it. And pretty much everyone ends up in one of those two situations at some point in time,” she concluded.
WBZ NewsRadio1030's Kim Tunnicliffe Reports