Island Grown Initiative held a ribbon-cutting Tuesday at what will soon become the permanent home of the Island Food Pantry at 114 Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission this week unanimously approved the Island Food Pantry’s plan for a permanent move to 114-116 Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs.

Efforts to start a new, permanent home for the Island Food Pantry got a major boost this week when the Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation announced it was giving Island Grown Initiative $1 million for the project.

Island Grown Initiative seeks to move its food pantry to Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs, while in Vineyard Haven, landowner Michael Sawyer is applying to replace a demolished building on Lagoon Pond Road with two four-story apartments.

A former musicians' workshop on Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs will become the Island Food Pantry's permanent home, if regional and town officials agree to the proposal by the pantry's parent nonprofit, Island Grown Initiative.

Food insecurity, once a seasonal issue as Islanders tried to get through the winter when jobs are traditionally scarce, continues to climb, creating what officials say is an acute year-round crisis.

Island Grown Initiative purchased an old warehouse in Oak Bluffs last week and plans to convert it into a the permanent home for the nonprofit's food pantry.

On March 2, the federal government issued the last of its pandemic SNAP allotments, but a $1.3 million grant to the Martha's Vineyard Community Foundation is helping keep Islanders fed.

Getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table has been more expensive for everyone this year, and particularly so for Vineyard food charities, which are feeling the pincer grip of inflation and supply chain shortages.

For many seasonal travelers, Martha’s Vineyard appears the epitome of an affluent Island, but many Islanders face a growing food insecurity made more dire by record inflation and a worldwide pandemic.