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.
Nonprofits that feed hundreds of hungry Islanders every week are facing unprecedented reductions in supplies of groceries, at a time when the need is growing. Staffing shortages at the Greater Boston Food Bank are one issue.
Growing up in Edgartown, what chef Amy Johnson looked forward to most on Christmas Day wasn’t opening presents. “The food was more impressive than the gifts,” she recalled.
