NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – Anderson Huang and his wife have always enjoyed giving back to the community. It has become a family tradition to take on different projects with their kids and help out wherever they can.

“We’re people of faith, and it’s part of what we believe in,” Huang said. “We believe in giving back to the poor and families. It’s just something that our children were raised with, we believe in and it gives us a lot of gratification.”

Most recently, Huang and his business, Anytime Fitness Northborough, helped load and deliver 10,000 pounds of food donated to Project Just Because.

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“It’s something we really value,” Huang said. “It’s part of the reason we’re in business. We get a lot of fulfillment and personal gratification from it.”

Project Just Because is dedicated to meeting the human needs of the communities they serve. The organization provides resources to families in need through their programs The Free Grocery Store, Hopkin Food Pantry and Furniture Network.

“We’ve been supporting them for five/six years now,” Huang said. “My wife was on their Facebook page and saw that they had a need for transportation.”

The 10,000 pounds of food was the biggest delivery Project Just Because ever received, according to Huang. The food, which was donated by a food bank, helped support over 100 families. Anytime Fitness provided use of their box truck, two pickup trucks and staff.

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“We barely fit everything,” Huang said. “It was crazy.”

The Anytime Fitness crew filled trucks with cans of beans, soups, coconut water, peanut butter, fresh fruit, potatoes and so much more.

“This is one of the reasons we have our business – to try to help our community, and needy families especially,” Huang said.

The organization also donated a shower truck to Support the Soupman, which originally started as a way to deliver hot meals to the homeless in Brockton. Now, Support the Soupman provides backpacks of clothes and supplies as well as resources like the shower truck, which provides a space for the homeless population to refresh.

“It became this grassroot movement. So many people started volunteering,” Huang said. “Now they run these buses where they give away not only food but clothing, backpacks, boots and jackets. They give away so much stuff.”

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During the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, Huang recognizes how fragile some families are feeling.

“There was definitely a greater need because of everything that happened with COVID,” Huang said. “There were a lot more families that needed more food than they normally would. It was very timely.”

As the state continues to slowly open up, though, Huang believes that the need will persist for months, if not years, to come.

“There’s definitely still there’s huge backlog of need,” Huang said. “Everyone’s not back to the old normal yet.”