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.
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.
At the Island Food Pantry, operations manager Sharon Brown teaches people how to stretch 15 cents to create a dollar's worth of food in a meal.
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.
