‘I know what it is to go through hunger’: Tenured truck driver for Boston food bank delivers with dignity
Greater Boston Food Bank delivery driver Juan Encarnacion knows the power of a helping hand
BOSTON —
Fueled by a passion to ensure no one goes to bed hungry, a truck driver with the Greater Boston Food Bank has remained committed to food deliveries for 35 years. Juan Encarnacion started working as the food bank’s sole driver in 1991, but has seen the team expand to eight drivers who help deliver 92 million healthy meals across eastern Massachusetts each year.
“I like to feed people,” said Juan Encarnacion. “I like to know that people have a meal before they go to bed.”
NewsCenter 5 spent a morning on the road with Encarnacion, meeting him early in the morning at the Greater Boston Food Bank’s headquarters. Just as dawn is breaking, Encarnacion ensures his truck is filled with nearly 20,000 pounds of food and inspects the refrigerated semi-trailer before he hits the road.
“It looks good,” he said, checking the oil.
Before he steps on the gas, he completes his paperwork and tunes his radio.
“I listen to my Christian music,” he said. “It talks to my spirit. Me and the good Lord upstairs, you know, keep in contact with him.”
Every Wednesday, Encarnacion delivers to Damien’s Place in Wareham, itself a distribution site to smaller pantries in the region.
Hearst OwnedGreater Boston Food Bank
Juan Encarnacion has been making deliveries for the Greater Boston Food Bank since 1991.
When he arrives at Damien’s Place an hour later, there is already another delivery truck ready to offload the fruit, vegetables, bread and shelf-stable products filling his truck.
He works to offload boxes of jasmine rice and moves boxes from one truck to another. Throughout the morning, he checks in with the friends he’s made.
“They love him,” said Rachel Resendes, the executive director of Damien’s Place. “The other truck drivers love him, the other pantries do. So it just makes for a great experience.”
Resendes said without drivers like Encarnacion, the shelves of the pantry would be much less full. Even though there are donations coming in, they would never be enough to meet the needs of this community. Damien’s Place serves 2,000 families a month and this year is on track to distribute a record-breaking 1.5 million pounds of food.
“When I see what our food does to other people,” said Encarnacion, becoming emotional, “that’s why I stay here so long!”
Over the years, Encarnacion said not only has he seen his team grow, but he’s seen the quality of the food they deliver improve.
“I’m happy that we are giving people top-quality whole foods,” he said. “That makes me happy.”
Encarnacion becomes emotional describing the work. He knows the value of his precious cargo.
“I was an orphan, and I know what it is to go through hunger,” he said. “It feels good delivering our food to people. It’s tremendous.”
Encarnacion, who was born in Puerto Rico, spent four years in an orphanage after his father died. Eventually, he was reunited with his mother and moved to New York and then Boston. He likes to be part of the solution in making sure food doesn’t go to waste.
“It’s something special when in your heart you have to know that somebody out there is feeling hungry,” he said. “So automatically, I know what he’s going through, you know? I like to be part of one of his needs during the day.”
For Resendes, it’s not just Encarnacion’s ability to do the job that impresses her, but his ability to do it with a smile.
“If I could hire him full time, I would!” she said. “I’d snag him away!”
When will he retire? Encarnacion said he is asked that question often and doesn’t have an exact answer.
“I’m into my sixties. Maybe after 70!” he said, laughing.
For now, he and the other drivers will log 150,000 miles this year to fight hunger in the Commonwealth.
“I think he’s magnified what it is to be able to receive food with dignity and respect,” said Resendes.
It’s a respect Encarnacion has for the people, the process and the power everyone has to do good.
“It doesn’t matter how much you give,” he said. “No, no. Give what you know the good Lord has put on your heart. That dollar means a lot to us; you can see what’s happening here. So don’t ever think that the little that you give is not worth it; it is.”
