EAST LONGMEADOW – The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) has partnered with the town of East Longmeadow and the neighboring town of Hampden to apply for grant funding that would allow a mobile food pantry program to service both communities.

John O’Leary, a community development planner with the PVPC, said the project would seek a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).

“Some of the programs and activities that we’re applying for directly impact seniors, more specifically, the mobile food pantry and a housing redevelopment assistance program,” he told a group of more than a hundred seniors at the East Longmeadow Senior Center on Feb. 16.

O’Leary said a van would be purchased to deliver goods and services directly to people who are unable to visit the emergency food pantry as well as accommodating more meal deliveries than is possible currently.

The housing rehabilitation program allows residents to receive a loan up to $45,000 to renovate their homes, whether those repairs would be to siding, roofs, windows, plumbing, or electrical.

“That is a component to that application and it’s going to be about 15 homes that individual homeowners can take advantage of,” he explained.

The mobile food pantry and the housing assistance program would be shared between the two towns, he noted. Five homeowners in Hampden would receive loans, while 15 homeowners in East Longmeadow would the receive loans.

O’Leary told Reminder Publications the grant application would seek between $900,000 to $1 million in CDBG funds for the two projects and three others, including a Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) self evaluation and transition plan for Hampden, which would assess all town owned properties to make sure they are up to code with ADA compliance.

A project that would be funded by the grant for the town of East Longmeadow would be a Town Hall accessibility planning study, he said.

“That Town Hall building would be looked at by a designer and architect and provide alternatives for the town to consider to basically make it more accessible with an elevator and just general accessibility for the building as a whole,” O’Leary said.

The last project that could be funded would be an ADA compliant curb ramp and sidewalk instillation throughout East Longmeadow in approximately 25 areas in town, he added.

“That’s either taking existing curb ramps and bringing them up to compliance or completely constructing new ones that don’t have any ramps at all,” he explained. “One area is focused downtown and then there’s various areas throughout the town whether it be by a school or areas where pedestrians access a lot.”

When asked what the chances are of the grant being approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), O’Leary responded by stating, “What it comes down to is looking at the needs of the community, whether that be through their low to moderate income score, which is published by HUD, but also being able to effectively write and express the need of the individual town and that is something that I will be taking on as the grant writer. But it is a very competitive funding source.”

This year, HUD modified CDBG fund applications to allow more towns to apply, he explained. Many larger communities typically receive block grant funds every year; the grant revenue Hampden and East Longmeadow would seek would be one-time money for the list of projects.