Selectmen discuss Norwood's 4K SNAP recipients

The Norwood Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday evening and discussed with Norwood Senior Center Director Keri McCarthy the looming loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

As of the date of publication, the U.S. Federal Government is shut down, and if that continues, about 42 million Americans are set to loss their benefits. According to WCVB – https://tinyurl.com/2kv3temc – about 1.1 million Massachusetts residents receive SNAP, and according to McCarthy and Town Manager Tony Mazzucco, Norwood had 2,300 households, or about 4,000 residents, who received benefits as of July.

“Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen,” McCarthy said, noting that the Senior Center provides many meal programs, most of which are available as low as $5, and in certain cases, free of charge, Monday through Friday for older residents.

“As always, if somebody needs a meal, no questions asked, let me know and we will not charge you; we will never tell somebody they can’t have a hot meal,” she said.

McCarthy added that members have been openly nervous about current grocery price increases at this time as well.

“Everyone’s talking about how expensive everything is, and that $5 meal at the Senior Center, people can get two meals out of that, so people are really utilizing it,” she said.

Mazzucco said he met with interested parties on Tuesday to discuss how Norwood can help to lessen the impact.

“So we had an internal meeting today with some volunteers, and key staff members are getting involved in looking at what we can do with the schools and the (Norwood) Housing Authority to try to be prepared for the impending issue that this will cause,” he said. “What we think we’re going to be able to do is something similar to some things we did during the (COVID-19) Pandemic. We’re going to coordinate some donations between the schools, the Senior Center and the police department. We’re going to look at possibly doing a family meal take home program, similar to something we did in the pandemic. The prices have changed so we’re going to have to look at that a little bit. We might look at a limited staples drive for families and children.”

Mazzucco said they are breaking groups up for such distributions, and they include families, families with children, veterans and seniors. Mazzucco said McCarthy is looking at expanding the current meal program at the Senior Center as well with grant funding.

“We cannot solve this problem on our own in any way shape or form, but we do think we’ll be able to help the most impacted families at least and help bridge that gap a little bit,” he said.

The Town also has a fuel assistance program, information on which can be found at https://tinyurl.com/2vz99ax3, and if you’re interested in donating to the Gift of Warmth program for Norwood residents, go to https://tinyurl.com/yzpnfnp5

For more information on meal programs at the Senior Center, go to https://tinyurl.com/2rk3jnwe

In other news, the Board discussed Fall Town Meeting Articles 8 and 9, which involve properties at the Cofsky Farm. The Town has right of first refusal on the property, and the Open Space and Recreation Plan has selected the site for conservation, as Norwood has few open spaces not yet developed. Mazzucco said the current plan is to leave the property alone and allow the public to use it, with ideas to add parking and a welcome center sometime in the future.

“We’ve laid out in the yellow sheets that the Board would appoint a committee to look at what uses we would see over time, but we’re not buying it to develop it,” he said.

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Selectman Michael Saad asked about an appraisal for the property. According to the Town’s website FAQ sheet https://tinyurl.com/2xz25kcc – the Town has set aside more than $7.2 million for the Cofsky Farm property, as well as $1.8 million for the adjacent properties at 814 and 816 Neponset St.

Mazzucco said the appraisal is forthcoming, but he said if it doesn’t come in on time for the Warrant Articles at Town Meeting, or if there are issues surrounding wetlands conservation or such issues, the item would be delayed until the Annual Spring Town Meeting in May.

“We don’t want to do that, but it’s tough to get everything ready well ahead of time and have it not go stale by the time you call Town Meeting,” he said.

Mazzucco said the two non-farm properties, 814 and 816 Neponset, would be easier to appraise because they are easier to compare statistics. Open land is a bit harder, since it’s not bought and sold as frequently and there aren’t as many data points to compare.

Mazzucco said they are considering selling those two properties to lessen the impact of the open space purchase, but he said any plans are far off at this point. He said regardless of what they decide, they would maintain the houses and possibly rent them.

“We wouldn’t let them sit vacant for a number of years; we would either weatherize them, find a use for them or sell them,” he said.