Amherst Survival Center

Helping Neighbors in Need

2019-2020 CATALOG

The gifts in this catalog, through your contributions, help so many: struggling families, the working poor, low-income seniors, new immigrants, students, and people coping with mental illness and homelessness. The Amherst Survival Center connects these neighbors with hot meals, food to bring home, clothing, healthcare, wellness, and community.

Our programs feed our bodies and our spirits. Serving more than 6,000 participants each year, with 250 weekly volunteers, the Center fosters a remarkable community. Respect and dignity are our hallmarks. Please consider gifts from this catalog to honor your friends, family, or business associates. You can also use the catalog to make a regular unrestricted gift to support our operations.

Donate securely online to the Amherst Survival Center through Stripe, our payment gateway.

Gift Catalog 2019-20

To order a gift donation from our online catalog, please choose the items you would like to donate and fill out your name and email. When you hit the "Submit" button at the bottom of this page, you will be redirected for payment by credit card through Stripe.

Gift Announcements
If you wish to purchase a gift in honor of someone, the Center will be happy to mail gift announcements on your behalf—just fill out the information at the bottom of this form.

  • At the heart of our operations. The Amherst Survival Center provides a breakfast bar, hot lunch for as many as 120 people four days per week, and dinner on Thursdays. And of course, all meals are free! Lunches always include rice, fresh fruit and salad, a few cooked veggies, and a variety of protein options—all prepared, cooked, and served by volunteers in our Community Kitchen. For people who cannot stay for our sit-down lunch due to work, an appointment, or the needs of someone at home, we provide packaged lunches-to-go that include a sampling from that day’s menu. Help support this nutritious program at the heart of the Center’s operations. In fact, come join us for lunch—your presence creates community.
    Price: $300.00 Quantity:
  • Each week the Center’s Fresh Food Distribution area handles 600 shopping visits for its fresh vegetables, fruit, bread and baked goods. Every day, volunteer drivers recover 2,000-3,000 pounds of food from area farms, grocery stores, and bakeries, fighting hunger and food waste at the same time. Daily distribution of fresh food is one of our key programs making healthy food available to all.
    Price: $100.00 Quantity:
  • Also available for emergencies. Each month, individuals and families come shop for 5 to 6 days’ worth of food for their household. They choose from a variety of canned goods, cereals, pasta and rice, meat or fish, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruit, fresh milk, and cheese. The Pantry provides special allocations at times of emergency, such as a fire, loss of a job, or an unexpected illness. Shoppers choose all their own items to maximize choice and minimize waste. In the past year, the Food Pantry distributed 429,782 pounds of food to 4,081 people in 1,672 households.
    Price: $150.00 Quantity:
  • Six Grocery Shops for a Household
    Price: $300.00 Quantity:
  • When times are hard, the companionship of a pet can be priceless. But often budgets are so tight that some may forego feeding themselves in order to feed their pets. The availability of donated pet food, vouchers for spaying and neutering services for our dog and cat companions, and other pet provisions can make all the difference in the world to those for whom a pet is part of the family or a best friend.
    Price: $25.00 Quantity:
  • Extra food during school vacations. Many families rely on school-provided meals for their children, yet this crucial nutrition disappears during every school vacation. The loss of this weekday benefit can be financially and emotionally stressful. Our popular Kids Boost program gives families with school-age kids extra food during school vacations.
    One week for 5 children
    Price: $50.00 Quantity:
  • One week for 10 children
    Price: $100.00 Quantity:
  • For seniors in need. Meat, produce, and non-perishable groceries from our Food Pantry are provided to seniors in Amherst, Pelham, and now in Belchertown too! Participating seniors select items from a monthly shopping list. Volunteers assemble and deliver food bags monthly. There are more than 3,000 seniors in our local community facing hunger. Imagine how welcome delivery is for those who can’t make the trip to the Center.
    Price: $50.00 Quantity:
  • Tele-Translation for a Medical Appointment. For any of us who have navigated a medical crisis, we’ve experienced the challenge of translating between “doctorspeak” and “lay-person.” Imagine the added challenge of trying to explain what’s wrong in a language other than your own! Our volunteer doctors and nurses frequently use free services like Google Translate, but for more complicated cases, they need access to a paid medical tele-translation service to avoid misdiagnosis and miscommunication.
    Price: $45.00 Quantity:
  • Building our relationship with and learning from the Latinx community. The Amherst Survival Center has reached out in the past year to better connect the local Latinx community to all of our services. We’ve translated our materials, stocked requested foods in the pantry, and publicized our policies to accommodate bus riders. We’re partnering with local leaders to add new programming and do even more to strengthen our relationships in the Latinx community. Help us expand our efforts to ensure that the Center works for all. There is always a aeat at our table.
    Price: $50.00 Quantity:
  • Stocking the Pantry shelves with newly requested foods. We take shopper requests seriously—switching to fresh milk from shelf-stable, adding more fresh produce, and stocking new personal care items requested by seniors. The most common requests during our conversations with Latinx shoppers were to stock maseca (corn flour, used for making tortillas and many other foods) and a variety of dried beans. The first day on the shelf, one shopper smiled and exclaimed, “This I know how to cook!” as he placed them in his cart. We’ve been receiving these items as donations, and buying them wholesale from a local vendor to ensure we have them in stock. Maseca y Frijoles (Corn Flour and Dried Beans).
    Price: $30.00 Quantity:
  • The Community Store depends on donations from community members. All donations—including clothing, shoes, toys, books, linens, and small household appliances—are available at no cost to all who come in our doors. There are some items that people prefer to have new, such as undergarments and socks. Other items are needed but in short supply—winter boots, tents and sleeping bags, and warm coats. Your support helps us to provide these much-needed items to supplement community donations.
    Price: $50.00 Quantity:
  • The Free Health Clinic provides primary health care two days per week. A doctor’s note may be needed so that a child can play sports or so that a parent can apply for a job. Our health clinic team diagnoses illness, makes referrals to specialists, provides wound care, and writes prescriptions. If needed, patients access the Health Needs Fund to pay expenses they cannot afford, such as the co-pay at a specialist, a ride to the appointment, or newly prescribed medication. Without access to the wonderful volunteer medical professionals in our clinic, our patients would be at risk for missed diagnoses, worsening symptoms, and unnecessary suffering.
    Price: $100.00 Quantity:
  • Support a Day of the Free Clinic
    Price: $230.00 Quantity:
  • Support a Week of the Free Clinic
    Price: $460.00 Quantity:
  • When times are hard, personal care necessities such as a toothbrush or a bar of soap can be hard to come by. With donations from the community, we provide families and individuals with basic personal-care items—deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, razor, menstrual products, toilet paper, and more. Your support helps the Center purchase needed items when they’re not available through donations.
    Price: $50.00 Quantity:
  • Critical staple for young families. Without a supply of fresh diapers, babies can’t attend childcare. As a result, their parents can’t go to school or work. No child should wear a wet diaper for an extended time, nor should a parent be forced to reuse disposable diapers because of not being able to afford new ones. Both situations create a health risk and problems for the child. Stocking our pantry with disposable baby diapers for infants through toddlers allows us to support families in our community. One week allocation for 4 children.
    Price: $30.00 Quantity:
  • Feeding connection, belonging, and hope. The Center plans and enjoys a variety of community events to connect us to each other and to strengthen our social safety nets. Most Fridays, visitors enjoy live music over lunch, played by a wonderful array of volunteer musicians and professional groups.
    Price: $300.00 Quantity:
  • Each December the Amherst Survival Center collects and gives out new books, games, and warm winter accessories to children whose families use the Center's Food Pantry. Last year over 500 children received gifts from this program. Share your holiday spirit in a meaningful way. You’ll be helping a family with little or no funds for gifts. Children's games & books in multiple languages.
    Price: $25.00 Quantity:
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  • If you are making a gift in honor of someone, and would like the Amherst Survival Center to send that person a card to acknowledge your gift, please include the gift recipient's name, mailing or email address, and a message you would like to include below. You are welcome to include additional names and addresses in the comment box.

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