History of Beverly Bootstraps

1992 Founded as a Food Pantry in the downtown Beverly, MA First Baptist Church.
1994 Beverly Bootstraps Food Pantry Incorporated with the mission “to end hunger and its root causes in the Beverly community.”
1995 The first Outreach Worker was hired to address issues clients faced in addition to hunger such as: education, homelessness, illiteracy, health problems, language barriers, and more. During the past 13 years, outreach workers initiated and coordinated a variety of programs to address these issues (please see section 3 for details), and recruited and supervised a small army of volunteers. Each program is designed to help clients improve their self-sufficiency.
1996 A private Corporation, Clear Point Consultants of Danvers, awarded Beverly Bootstraps Food Pantry $10,000 to help homeless (or at risk of) families with children, beginning Bootstraps' Clearpoint Horizons Program with the purchase of a two-bedroom condo in downtown Beverly.
2003 Overwhelmed with donated clothes and items, we rented space in (another) church basement and opened a Thrift Shop. The location was not ideal and we were unable to make a profit.
2005 Moved the Thrift Shop to a high-traffic downtown storefront. The shop now contributes a steady income to Bootstraps programs and serves as a resource for some clients who shop with free vouchers.
2006 Bootstraps relocated to a building closer to the neighborhoods we serve where Outreach Programs could be managed from one location.
2007 The organization changed its name to Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, Inc. to reflect the breadth of our programs. (Please note: The food pantry is still a core component of the organization and is a starting point for many clients enrolled in our outreach programs.)
2007 Expanded the reach of our services to other North Shore towns.