At summer’s end, the Vineyard committee on hunger is gearing up for the coming year, when the Island Food Pantry will stay open all summer.

The Vineyard Committee on Hunger is hosting its annual bread and baked goods sale on Saturday, June 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Although not always visible, hunger is a part of daily life for many Vineyarders. A broad coalition has formed to address the problem.

It was a bustling scene at the parish house behind First Baptist Church on Friday afternoon as volunteers organized and packaged Thanksgiving meals for families in need. Serving Hands provides monthly food distribution and on holidays the Family to Family program joins in to add holiday meals to the distribution.

Summer produce will be donated to the Island's Serving Hands food distribution program from CSA shares at Island farms. And to meet the new supply and the ever-increasing demand, produce will be given away every Friday.

On April 30 the Vineyard Committee on Hunger brings the issue to the center of the plate, so to speak, at its annual Hunger Banquet. The dinner reveals the disparity in food security around the world in a simple yet direct manner.

One in every four children in America doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from.

It’s an issue that has often passed quietly under the radar and gets little attention on TV or in books. But a new film screened Wednesday night at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, A Place at the Table, aims to change that by bringing the issue to the forefront of people’s minds.

A Place at the Table, narrated by Jeff Bridges and scored by T-Bone Burnett, is a documentary that places the spotlight on hunger here at home. It tells the stories of people struggling with food insecurity in the U.S., where 50 million people are unsure of where their next meal will come from. The Vineyard Committee on Hunger and Martha’s Vineyard Film Society will sponsor a showing of the film on Wednesday, August 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the film center at the Tisbury Marketplace in Vineyard Haven.

The warm sunshine last Saturday didn’t deter bread buyers at the annual bake sale organized by the Vineyard Committee on Hunger — better to buy a loaf of homemade bread than heat up the house with a hot oven. There was oatmeal bread, all-grain bread, cranberry bread and even gluten-free cornbread for sale as the group put up tables outside the Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Vineyard Haven, hoping their collection jars and handouts on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) budget cuts might raise awareness of those who go to bed hungry at night, even on Martha’s Vineyard.