PANTRY WRAP

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The Island Food Pantry has had anther record year, including a record 174 visits in one week in March, a record income of $81,235 and a record $70,096 in food expenditures.

The Rev. Helen Oliver inaugurated the Island Food Pantry as an outreach program of Christ United Methodist Church in 1981. In 29 years, the pantry has expanded from a one-person effort to a ministry including over 60 volunteers. The pantry has been supported by all the faith communities on the Island, the Vineyard Committee on Hunger, Islanders, schools, businesses, summer visitors and organizations. Island Club Card members provided $3,003. The Capawock Theatre shows free films regularly for food pantry contributions. Pyewacket’s provides a flea market table for the pantry. It is a wonderful and effective effort of cooperation and caring. The pantry receives no government food or funds.

Our income has increased by $17,816 over last year. We increased our monthly food card distribution from $20 to $25 to each family. We spent $13,338 more on food than last year. Seven out of the past 12 years we spent more than we received. Our endowment fund covered the shortages. These funds were given in memory of Kevin Kennedy, Daniel Alisio and Sayan Kasem. Our goal is to maintain the original gift and use the growth in the endowment for income shortages or special projects, as we did in making our entryway handicapped accessible. Hopefully others will include the food pantry in their wills so we might meet future difficult periods for our Island neighbors.

In our efforts to communicate to both English and Portuguese-speaking friends, we maintain a Web site (islandfoodpantry.org) and have a translator most days we are open.

Visits to the pantry have increased this year from 2050 to 2650. We assisted 510 families representing at least 960 people on the Vineyard, including at least 130 children. In addition, granola bars were provided to all the public schools for breakfast supplements.

Of the 510 families, 188 came only once or twice (last year 200) and 203 came six or more times (last year 186). Last year 239 said they were unemployed; this year 214 stated they were without employment, while 248 gave no answer regarding employment. Last year we averaged 81 visits a week; this year we averaged 102 visits a week.

People can come to the pantry once every two weeks on Monday, Wednesday or Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. from mid-October to mid-April. Emergencies are responded to throughout the year when people call the pantry number.

The pantry has no paid staff. All gifts provide food for the Island community. A contribution is made to the church to help with the cost of heat, light and garbage removal. We have an advisory board and our books are audited each year. For a wonderful cooperation of the church and the community, I am sincerely thankful. Best of all, our volunteers have worked hard and kept a positive attitude. I am grateful to be part of such a caring community.

Armen Hanjian

Vineyard Haven

The writer is coordinator for the Island Food Pantry.

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A TEXAN’S PERSPECTIVE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I am a native Texan, born in the oil fields of west Texas, specifically the vast Permian Basin from which much of the oil and natural gas that heat and power New England come. I had the good fortune to marry a native-born Islander. Having grown up in those west Texas oil fields, this beautiful Island looked like paradise to me. We have now inherited her family home in Edgartown.

Both my wife and I spent our work lives in Houston, Tex., she as an Episcopal minister and I as a professor at Rice University. Since our retirements we have spent May through October on the Island and November through April in Houston. We have children and grandchildren in both locations.

I have watched with great interest your lengthy debate over the proposed wind farms. I find that I have little sympathy for those opposed to (and considerable enthusiasm for) the wind farm. Perhaps because of the perspective that comes from having lived in those Texas oil fields.

Those iconic pump jacks that appear on television any time the oil industry is mentioned are noisy, dirty, and stink from the smell of crude oil that is carried on the incessant wind. Waste pits filled with oil sludge are constantly being burned off causing great clouds of black, toxic smoke. Huge flares burn day and night consuming waste gas. Oil derricks that are left in place after the drilling of a well are not graceful, animated sculptural structures like the proposed wind mills, but coarse, dark, angular intrusions into the otherwise glorious uninterrupted western sky — with sunsets that match anything I have seen from this Island. Unless you have experienced sunsets in the “land of the high sky” you would not believe me.

The oil fields of West Texas are ugly, noisy, smelly, and visually depressing. It is from that environment that your heating oil and fuel for your power plants have come for many years. And, of course, these days we are all aware of the environmental disaster facing the entire Gulf Coast because of the recent oil spill.

So as mentioned at the beginning of this piece, I am not moved by arguments of those opposed to the wind farms. Texas leads the nation in energy produced from wind farms. Years ago my wife and I opted to pay a bit more for electricity that came from wind instead of so-called clean coal, natural gas or oil.

And speaking of the oil spill in the Gulf Coast, how bad do you think a wind spill might be?

Sandy Havens

Houston, Tex.,

and Edgartown

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PROTECT THE SOUND

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Well, I guess I have no business telling Martha’s Vineyard folks anything.

I’m a Texas boy, born and bred. We’ve made a lot of mistakes down here in the lone star state — oil and gas, mostly, pollution extraordinaire, but we’ve wised up. Nantucket Sound is a national treasure — please keep it untainted from any manmade things. We’re running out of national treasures. What’s next: rocky mountains, national parks, interstate highways, and on and on?

Okay, I’ll mind my own business. Well, no, I would love to visit Nantucket Sound . . . some day.

Jerry Patterson Sr.

Grandprairie, Tex.

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CPA SPENDING

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

There were public comments about the spending of the Oak Bluffs Community Preservation Committee at the Oak Bluffs annual town meeting that I would like to clarify.

The system for allocation of available funds does work and many people have and will continue to benefit from the use of these funds. Of the $2,691,401 allocated so far for CPA projects in Oak Bluffs, $915,201 (34 per cent) has gone to historic preservation; $1,236,700 (46 per cent) has gone to community housing; and $539,500 (20 per cent) has gone to open space and recreation.

We hold twice-monthly hearings open to the public, and also a public comment meeting to hear ideas from the community and input on projects before we finalize our recommendations. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Stephen Durkee

Oak Bluffs

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USED BOOK DRIVE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

As a member of the Library Friends of Oak Bluffs, I’d like to thank the Gazette for publishing the Used Books Wanted notice on April 23. The book donations have been flowing in and our volunteers have been busy sorting and storing. We’re getting ready for our July book sale, which is the Friends’ major fund-raiser each year. The response from the community, in support of the Friends and the Oak Bluffs Public Library, has been gratifying, especially at this time when budgets are tight. Our book drive continues through the end of June, and we continue to welcome book donations.

Our mission is to promote the library as an active, dynamic, education and information center in the community and to support and enhance our library programs, services and collections. Thanks to the Gazette and the Island for your support.

Marilyn Miller

Oak Bluffs

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LOVE, NICARAGUA

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Hola from the children of Pacaya, and many thanks for all the love you left behind.

The articles from the newspapers are now up on the school wall for all to see. Most of the students at this school had never seen a computer before, and because of the gift of four used laptops and the dedicated teaching of Jim Braley, many children and the teachers began the process of connecting to the world.

Thank you to Philip Fleischman who contributed maps, and so many items to equip the school and money to buy books, and to Joe Schroeder for his donations of sporting goods for the students, to all the teachers and students of the schools on Martha’s Vineyard who gave us money to buy books. Thank you to Lynn Weber who donated many children’s books in Spanish. The kindergarten teacher is so happy with her first books and will use them well.

Lynn Ditchfield, director of Adult and Community Education of Martha’s Vineyard (ACE MV) and Julie Hitchings, Toni Cohen, Nancy Whipple and Jim and Meg Braley of Maine did outstanding work with the children of Pacaya, teaching them so much through song and art, culminating in a performance for the parents. In just a few short hours, Lynn had a group of these children reciting Shakespeare, lines from Hamlet, in English! I was mighty impressed.

Everyone had their life enriched by this experience, and the good you did will remain with this community of Pacaya forever.

Mucho gusto.

Muriel Laverty

and Omar Gonzalez

Masaya, Nicaragua