Two cities united to help hungry

In the spirit of the holiday season, the cities of Newton and Lawrence partnered up during the month of December to fight against food insecurity.

Donations to Newton’s second annual citywide food drive were also collected for Lawrence, in an effort to help with their shortage.

After a recent Boston Globe report revealed a major food and supplies shortage in Lawrence’s food pantries, Newton Mayor Setti Warren reached out to Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera and proposed that the cities join forces for the holiday season.

“We all came together quickly and expanded our annual citywide food drive to a joint Newton-Lawrence food drive,” Mayor Warren said.

According to the Globe report, one in eight adults is unemployed and looking for work in Lawrence, and the city’s food pantries have been struggling to keep up with rising requests for assistance.

This partnership also included help from the United Way and United Parcel Service, which helped with logistics and the shipping of donations to Lawrence.

Items such as canned fruit and vegetables, jarred pasta sauce, toothpaste and baby food were collected for both cities from Dec. 5-30 in more than 40 drop-off locations throughout Newton, where four pantries serve more than 1,200 residents a month.