Food Pantry
Thrift Shop
Both Closed
Monday: 10am-4pm
Tuesday: 10am-4pm
Wednesday: 10am-6:30pm
  • Guest choice
  • Pre-bagged
  • Online order pick-up
Thursday: Closed
Friday: 10am-3pm
  • Pre-bagged
  • Online order pick-up
Fresh Food Fridays
  • Guests may shop every Friday for produce and bread
  • Offerings vary each week.
Food4Kids
  • 10am – Noon
  • Guests may shop every week
Food4Seniors
  • 10am – Noon
  • REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Mobile Cart
  • Franklin Court Assisted Living Residents Only
  • 2nd and 4th Fridays 9:30-10:30am
Saturday: 10am-4pm
Sunday: Closed
Easy Bay Food Pantry & Thrift Shop
2010
  • Added a voucher program for families/individuals in need of Thrift Shop items.

  • Developed the Access Nutrition Initiative to improve healthy food options in our pantry and encourage healthy choices through education and community engagement. The Access Nutrition Initiative has grown to the point where we now spend at least 95% of our food purchasing dollars on healthy foods.
2011
  • Added Fresh Food Friday to provide weekly access to fresh produce and bread. Fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and greens make up approximately ¼ of the food we distribute.
2012
  • Developed our Food4Kids program to provide supplementary breakfast and lunch foods for kids 0-17 to ensure they have the nutrition they need, especially during weekends and school vacations when they may lose access to meals through school or daycare.

  • Partnered with SNAP Ed to provide monthly cooking classes (later we transitioned to partnering with the Bristol Health Equity Zone to provide monthly cooking classes).
2015
  • Became a Core member of the Bristol Health Equity Zone (BHEZ) and a member of the BHEZ Steering Committee.
2016
  • Partnered with the RI Community Food Bank (RICFB), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and RI Division of Elderly Affairs to provide monthly Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) boxes for low-income seniors.
2017
  • Developed our Mobile Pantry program to deliver groceries to homebound individuals and families in need.

  • Became the RI Community Food Bank Anchor Agency for the East Bay area due to our size, leadership, and consistently exemplary performance.
2018
  • Began our Farm2Pantry program to grow additional fresh produce for Fresh Food Fridays and our Food Pantry.
2019
  • Developed our Mobile Cart program to deliver supplementary food and personal care products to residents in Franklin Court Assisted Living.
2020
  • Began providing pre-bagged food due to Covid restrictions. When we returned to guest-choice programming, we retained the option of pre-bagged Food Pantry and Food4Kids food for those guests who prefer it.
2021
  • Developed Online Ordering to combine the convenience of pre-bagged food with greater choice and a regularly updated inventory.

  • Partnered with Hugh-Cole School to provide food deliveries to families unable to access the Food Pantry due to transportation or language barriers.

Programs

We Serve All The East Bay

Anyone living in the East Bay of RI can access food at our food pantry. The towns we serve are:

  • Barrington
  • Bristol
  • East Providence (Riverside and Rumford)
  • Little Compton
  • Middletown
  • Newport
  • Portsmouth
  • Tiverton
  • Warren

Food Programs

Food insecurity among Rhode Island families is a real and urgent social issue – one that East Bay Food Pantry addresses with compassion, expertise, and innovation.

All our food programs are designed around our award-winning Access Nutrition initiative. Clients from the East Bay area can utilize one or more of our client-choice food programs, making their own selections from the available food based upon household size and nutritional guidelines.

Click below for more information on our programs.

Click For More Information
Guest-choice food pantry
This is our primary food program. We offer guest-choice food shopping twice per month, either at our pantry on Wedensdays, or through online or pre-bagged orders. Guests choose from a wide range of fresh and shelf-stable foods.
Our goal is to consistently offer whole grains, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and high quality protein and dairy items to our clients who rely on EBFP to supplement their food needs. In addition to nutritious foods, our Access Nutrition Initiative also offers educational opportunities to our clients, volunteers, and staff through workshops, cooking classes, targeted food tastings, and printed materials.
Fresh Food Fridays

We offer fresh food (produce, bread, etc.) to our clients every Friday

Although this is a year-round program, we make a special effort to partner with local farms and gardeners to provide local, seasonal produce during the growing season. We are committed to getting produce and bread to our clients in its freshest and most nutritious state.

Food4Kids
This program provides families with food to make nutritious breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for their children. All client families with child(ren) 17 or younger are eligible.

Recent COVID-related programs to address the nutrition needs of school-aged children are changing, creating real challenges for East Bay families. Our Food4Kids program is designed to fill the nutrition gap and make sure children can get the nutritious meals they need when they are not receiving meals through school or daycare. 

In accordance with our Access Nutrition Initiative, the program focuses on nutritious foods such as eggs, low-fat milk, yogurt, whole grains, and fresh fruit.

Commodity Supplemental Food Program
The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) is a federal nutrition program for low-income seniors age 60 and over that works to improve their health by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA foods. We are proud to be a distribution site for this program, which is offered in cooperation with the RI Community Food Bank, the Department of Elderly Affairs, and the US Department of Agriculture.

Without proper nutrients, seniors are at risk of increased disability, decreased resistance to infections, deteriorating mental health, longer hospital stays, and chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Registered seniors can receive a supplemental box of nutritious food once a month.

Mobile Pantry
We developed our Mobile Pantry Program to help alleviate this inequality of access to healthy foods. Homebound individuals who need food assistance can receive deliveries of groceries for themselves and any dependents, including fresh produce, milk, eggs, whole grain bread, eggs, meat, and other healthy foods, as well as personal care products. Participants have the opportunity to indicate the foods they want and need each month in advance of their delivery.

Homebound individuals facing food-insecurity have particular challenges meeting their nutritional needs. Their food choices are limited not only by the cost of healthy, high-quality food, but also by their lack of mobility. Poor nutrition can exacerbate chronic diseases , worsen disabilities, decrease resistance to infection, and cause a deterioration of mental health.

Clients interested in participating in the Mobile Pantry program can call (401) 396-9490 for more information.

Mobile Cart

The East Bay Food Pantry is located just around the corner from the Franklin Court Assisted Living building. Many of the residents there are low-income, and after paying for room and board, there is very little left over to meet their other living expenses. We developed our Mobile Cart Program to provide fresh fruit, snacks, and personal care items to those residents who need a little extra help.

Mobile Cart delivers items right to the Franklin Court Assisted Living facility once a month to make it easy for residents to access the program.

What To Expect

Signing In

Sign-in with the check-in volunteer. Always bring your photo ID and client card.

Sign Up

New clients are welcome to register in the office any Wednesday between 10am and 6pm. Please bring a photo ID with address (and a bill if the address is not current) for every adult an official document for every child (SS card, birth certificate, health care card, etc.)

Shop

A volunteer will assist you as YOU pick out the food from our client-choice food programs, based on your family size. Please bring your own bags!

Any Questions? Please call us at (401) 396-9490.

Food Experience

Our Access Nutrition Initiative is about more than just making healthy food available. We also strive to incorporate nutrition consciousness into the culture of EBFP.

We offer multiple opportunities each year for our clients, staff, and volunteers to increase their nutrition knowledge and learn new ways to incorporate healthy foods into their diets. We leverage partnerships with the RI Community Food Bank and SNAP Ed to bring nutritionists into our facility to offer classes and workshops as well as healthy food tastings. We also make a variety of nutritious recipes available featuring seasonal produce and healthy pantry staples we have available. And, we include a variety of printed nutrition materials in our client resource center. As we make decisions about programming and food purchases, we strive to always consider the health of our clients.

“The people here are very friendly and helpful. It’s always great to come to this pantry, and I’m happy they are here to help my family.”

– Anonymous Guest

“You have a lot of healthy foods, and that makes all the difference! Your recipes are helpful too. We are so grateful for the East Bay Food Pantry and Thrift Store. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to make it. I tell everybody to go to the East Bay Food Pantry if they need help. You make me feel like family!”

- Sue

“EBFP has helped me as a single mom of two children. I work part-time and attend school to improve my career prospects so that my children can have a better future. Thank you to EBFP for all of the needed food support that you have given my family”

- Mother of two