With the holiday season just around the corner, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) has received a boost in its efforts to provide food to students and families in need.
On Thursday, Stop & Shop announced its commitment to donate $12,500 to support the high school’s Project Vine Pantry, an initiative meant to help combat food insecurity in the community. The funding will allow the school’s pantry to expand operations from biweekly to a weekly basis.
“This support comes at a critical time as we try to meet the growing needs of our students. We can now purchase consistent food supplies and personal care items that our families need,” Dhakir Warren, coordinator of the high school’s Project Vine program, said in a press release from Stop & Shop. “This will ultimately allow us to create a more dignified, reliable, and responsive food security resource for the students and families we serve.”
The pantry serves 100 students and their families, and has relied on donated and rescued foods — safe and edible food that would have been thrown out for not meeting certain standards — from local farms and food vendors. Stop & Shop will also help supplement the pantry.
Alongside the funding, Stop & Shop has donated 100 turkeys to the pantry ahead of Thanksgiving. The grocery store chain officials noted that there have been widespread disruptions to nutrition programs because of the record-breaking government shutdown. According to the release, 42 percent of MVRHS students identify as food-insecure.
“Our Stop & Shop team wanted to make sure that students and their families could celebrate the upcoming holidays feeling nourished and supported by their community,” Mary McEvoy, store manager at Stop & Shop Edgartown, said in the release. “We’re so proud to help expand the Project Vine Pantry and make sure students have consistent access to healthy foods all year round.”
The pledge stems from the Stop & Shop School Food Pantry Program, which was launched in 2019 to “limit barriers impacting students’ ability to succeed in the classroom by making sure that they have consistent access to food.” There are five school-based food pantries on the Cape and Islands supported by the program, and the Project Vine Pantry will have the chance to reapply for future funding.
