It’s All About Community

By Carol Masshardt

Food insecurity will be forever eliminated If Nick Owen and Mercy Robinson have their dream come true.

South Boston is exciting and desirable in wellknown and new ways, and it is also a community with poverty, and this is where Nick and Mercy devote endless energy and heart. Nick, 23, is the Program Director for the Food Programs of Action for Boston Community Development, and his community partner, Mercy, 31, is the Executive Director of South Boston En Accion. Coming from different backgrounds, they share a mindset about the importance of sound nutrition for all people. Although fun and interesting to plan for food distribution at different sites, in their ideal world their food “pop-ups” in South

Boston would be unneeded rather than attracting old and young, and families of all compositions eager for food every time offered.

Nick, originally from Concord, Ma., son of a father in healthcare and attorney mother, decided on a “gap” year between high school and college and it is one that was driven by service. He arrived at ABCD during the pandemic in 2020, and that well-established and mission driven agency had the good judgement to get to know him and his work and before long offer a leadership role. His perspective is wise beyond age and provides the motivational spark to work as he does.

“I always had an interest in mitigating problems in the world,” he said. “I had enormous support for everything I wanted to do coming from where I did, and there is such inequity. I think about food in a basic way. We need it, we enjoy it, and it is central to health. Diabetes, hypertension, so many health issues are connected to food. This is where you see the inequities of the society.”