AMHERST - It's not a sight many people would expect to see in this town, which boasts the Emily Dickinson homestead and three of the Five Colleges, including UMass, one of western Massachusetts' biggest economic engines.
But by 11 a.m. one recent morning, nearly a dozen people have lined up for a distribution of free day-old bread, fresh vegetables and other foods. The setting is the Amherst Survival Center, crowded into the basement of the former North Amherst School building. Apart from the free morning distribution, there's also a community meal, a free store and a food pantry here.
"If you drive through different sections of Amherst, it looks like a very rich community," said Blaire Robey, of Shutesbury, who's worked for 10 years as the center's operation coordinator. "It gives a very nice impression, a lot more than a lot of other towns around here. But there's a lot of families here that are just hanging on. Coming here can make the difference between heating and eating."
Many of the clients are from southern Franklin County towns.
Founded 35 years ago as a free store and food pantry in a residential garage, the nonprofit organization now provides a range of services, including a drop-in medical clinic, help in signing up for MassHealth insurance and food stamps, as well as family nights and Thursday night meals.
In all, it serves more than 3,000 people a year - about 450 of them from Sunderland, Whately, Deerfield, Leverett and Shutesbury, and more than 1,500 from Amherst itself. (It also serves Pelham, Belchertown, Granby, Hadley and South Hadley.)
"The difference between people who are coming to the Survival Center and people who aren't is one incredibly sick kid, one traffic accident," said Robey. "Unless you're incredibly well-set, you're one step away from the Survival Center."
For example, a woman in her 60s named Cathy, who lives in a Sunderland apartment complex, began taking the bus to the center regularly a year or two after her husband died.
"I was devastated," said the woman, who walks with a cane. "There was a big void in my life, and I don't like to eat alone. I hated it. (At the center) I met a lot of interesting people."
After hurting her knee last summer, and then getting laid off at Big Y, Cathy stopped coming for a while, "and my finances were getting worse and worse. After a while, I had to come," and she began getting help with her knee at the weekly health clinic.
According to 1999 Census figures, the most recent available, Amherst's per capita income is lower than any other town in the 29-town Greater Franklin County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy area, with the exception of a slightly lower Orange, Hawley and Monroe.
"Some people think, 'Amherst, you guys really don't need anything,'" center Executive Director Cheryl Zoll said.
The poverty rate, according to the same Census data, is higher than any area town other than Monroe - and not simply because most college students have low incomes. Even discounting the student population, Zoll said, Amherst shows up as among the 50 poorest communities in the state.
"It's here, and it's pretty intense, but it's like you just don't see it," she said. One of three public school students in the town is eligible for free or reduced lunches, and there are numerous apartment complexes where the level of poverty is hidden.
"You may not ever drive by there or see it," Zoll said. "It's a completely surprising thing about Amherst, but it's true. If you never left downtown, you wouldn't know. It's typical of rural poverty."
The town is rich in resources, though, from the physicians and others with professional expertise who volunteer their services to the local bakers, farmers and restaurants that contribute regularly to the center.
"It's a great place to be," Zoll said. "We're a great conduit for getting those resources to people who need them."
As she speaks in a crammed office that also serves as a conference room and a health clinic - complete with examination table temporarily piled with cartons - volunteers are cooking lunch next door and a girl's voice shouts out numbers for people waiting for food distribution bags.
Many of the volunteers that keep this place running on its $365,000 annual budget are the clients themselves - part of an operating philosophy "where almost no matter what a person is struggling with, we can find a way to incorporate them into the (Survival Center) community through some kind of volunteering - greeting people or sorting numbers for morning distribution," said Zoll, adding that other volunteers drive around picking up donated food or delivering meals to Amherst and Pelham seniors.
"Having an important thing you're doing is ... a very important piece. Everybody has something to give. We offer relief from isolation."
In a matter of minutes, the volunteers will also help convert the distribution area into a cafeteria for about 20 people, with a menu that recently included chicken marsala, salmon, fresh vegetable soup, tempeh stir fry, quiche, chicken meatballs, brown rice, carrots, beets, tossed salad and pasta salad.
Because of tight conditions, there will be several servings until all of the roughly 70 people are fed - some of them taking their lunch outdoors with others standing and moving around.
The free food distribution goes to about 50 households a day, with little concern about formal eligibility.
"Some people we know are bringing things back to their apartment complexes to share with neighbors who are working or can't come," said Zoll. "I feel like every time you see someone here, it's like a dozen people you're really seeing."
Robey, whose job includes organizing the center's autumn "Trash to Treasures" used-furniture fundraiser on the Town Common, said the grassroots center has a different, people-focused spirit than larger, hierarchical agencies. While the population in need may be hidden in area towns with some of the highest-priced homes, Robey said, it's also deceptive to think of an us-them dichotomy in today's economy.
And the needs are greater than ever, said Zoll.
Demand across all programs was up by more than 40 percent between 2007 and 2010, and the food pantry - where families can get a box of 60 to 80 pounds per month - has seen an 18 percent increase since last year, with nearly 500 new families seeking help. The free Monday health clinic recently treated 450 people.
"There are new people we're seeing at lunch," Zoll said. "Maybe we're seeing people who lost their jobs after 2008, and their jobs still aren't back and they're at the end of their resources. There's a real fallout from that. Gas prices are really high and food prices are high, and people who've been kind of making it work are now getting to the point where it's harder, so they're seeing more people as a result of that. It's a tough moment for everybody."
But it's also a moment of transition as the center plans a move to new, larger quarters a few hundred feet up the road.
The center, which gets nearly half its funding from donations, with another 30 percent from private grants and 15 percent from fundraising events, is about to launch a $1.8 million capital campaign to build a 6,000-square-foot center that will have a large dining area and kitchen, as well as dedicated spaces for a food pantry, free store, and offices - all around a central lobby.
The new Sunderland Road location, at the former site of Rooster's Restaurant, will allow the center to more than double its current 2,700 square feet of space.
Now, Zoll said, "There's just no space. If I have to make phone calls that have to be private, I've got to sit out in my car."