Issuu

2023

Impact Stories AS TOLD BY NONPROFITS of the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program & Bloomin’ 4 Good Program

Table of Contents Providing safety, hope, dignity & acceptance.................................................................................................... 1

Feeding the hungry in our community ................................................................................................................ 9

Empowering girls. Transforming lives ................................................................................................................. 15

Ending the cycle of homelessness through education .................................................................................................................................................. 25

Serving women who served .................................................................................................................................. 31

Helping feed more people, better ....................................................................................................................... 39

Every Act of Kindness Makes a Difference At PS It Matters, we believe everyday choices add up. By giving shoppers an easy way to make a difference, the Bags 4 My Cause and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs have generated more than $10.6 million in donations to over 42,000 nonprofit organizations since inception in 2011. This year alone, these two initiatives have donated over $2,000,000 to more than 17,800 nonprofits. To illustrate the meaning behind these numbers, our Nonprofit Engagement Team began conducting interviews with benefiting nonprofits in 2021. The resulting Impact Stories showcase the immense value of our partnership better than any facts or figures ever could. These stories highlight the multifaceted ways nonprofits contribute to their communities and how they have furthered their impact through the Stop & Shop Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs. Enclosed in this book are the stories of six nonprofits Stop & Shop supported this year. To hear from more nonprofits, visit the Stop & Shop Program Website: stopandshop.2givelocal.com/stories. It is through Stop & Shop’s dedication to creating a positive impact that, together, we are able to spark meaningful change. We sincerely value your partnership and look forward to continuing this inspiring work in 2024. Thank you for joining us in believing that every act of kindness makes a difference, no matter how small. We appreciate your commitment to supporting local nonprofits and strengthening the communities we call home.

Providing safety, hope, dignity & acceptance. FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC. Family and Community Resources, Inc. are dedicated to serving individuals and families whose lives are impacted by trauma, including violence at home, school, or in their community. Stop & Shop has supported this organization through the Community Bag Program.

Tell us about Family and Community Resources. Family and Community Resources (FCR) has operated since 1968, starting as the Youth Resource Bureau. Then in 1977, we decided to serve the entire family, so we opened a mental health clinic and started providing mental health services. The mission of FCR is to provide a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment for all trauma survivors, including those impacted by domestic and sexual violence, substance abuse, bereavement and other traumas. We are committed to the communities in which we serve. Our organization values choice, acceptance, hope and dignity to help children and adults along their path to safety, health and well-being. We aim to ensure that a wide range of perspectives, experiences and decision-making abilities have a seat around the table and that all voices are heard. The quest for equity and social justice is long, and challenges may arise. Still, we are dedicated to making that journey in the spirit of continuous learning, listening and improvement.

Our organization values choice, acceptance, hope and dignity to help children and adults along their path to safety, health and well-being. Family and Community Resources envision healthier communities free from family and community violence. Through our work supporting vulnerable populations, one day, all children and adults will be able to thrive in a safe, just and equitable world.

What services do you provide to the community? What we set out to do and have achieved is creating a onestop shop for survivors and their children. Often, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) or the court sends people to multiple places for services, and it becomes overwhelming for survivors, causing them not to do anything. Now, we provide all the necessary services in one place. FCR provides a mental health clinic for trauma survivors and domestic violence advocacy and support services. These are services that if someone is fleeing domestic violence and they’re in an unsafe situation, we try to connect them with the resources needed to become a well and safe person again for themselves and their children. FCR is funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing and supportive services to individuals and families fleeing domestic violence. Resources provided include rental and utility assistance, transportation and educational assistance, and a myriad of other services. FCR also has a program called Children Exposed to Domestic Violence. Often there are children in the home when violence occurs, which can leave lasting scars, so we have behavioral health counseling for those children. We have intimate partner abuse education. We work with perpetrators of abuse to help them find healthy ways to deal with their anger and to encourage them to see how they could become better nurturers and providers for their families.

Our organization was one of the first in the state to implement a supervised visitation program. When children are removed from their families because of unsafe situations or substance abuse issues, we offer this program in familybased services and court-ordered visitation services. Healthy Relationships for Teens is a great program that FCR provides. We get groups of young students from high school, and they go through training to be peer leaders. Then they return to the community and teach other teens about healthy relationships. They learn about boundaries, how to sense if their friend discloses an unsafe situation and what they can do. One of our goals is to stop domestic violence from happening in the first place. Educating students is a great place to start.

Partnerships and collaborations are meaningful in our work; we cannot do this alone. We are partnering with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office on a new program specifically for children who have been sexually abused. For this program, we will employ and supervise the coordinator of child advocacy services. This program is extensive, and we are honored to be the lead partner in this endeavor. Our staff is multilingual because we serve diverse communities with services that stretch across Southeastern Massachusetts. Advocates are there to help people in their primary language. We keep going, and as we go, we identify needs and figure out a way to provide. It’s like the little engine that could.

What sets your organization apart from others in your community?

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization.

The length of time that Family and Community Services has been in existence is exceptional. This agency has existed since 1968 and has grown as it identifies the needed services. We provide services to the entire family, which sets us apart. A survivor and the offending partner can come to us for assistance. We do all these services separately in individual places, ensuring that all safety mechanisms are in place. The breadth of staff we have who speak different languages and come from different cultures helps us reach out to the community at large.

One story that always stands out is about a woman who was in an abusive relationship, and unfortunately, she was subsequently killed by her abusive partner. This meant that her mother became the sole guardian of her two children. This grandmother came to us for support. She utilized several of our programs: the Domestic Violence program, our behavioral health clinic and eventually, our housing program. She only had a tiny apartment and needed a much larger space to take custody of the two children. We found her a bigger apartment and assisted her with rental expenses and initial utility support. She was so overwhelmed by the support that she came and spoke at our annual gala. She talked about how she appreciated all the help the staff had given her and that they were always respectful of her. And now, she is in a safe place with her two grandchildren, who, through our services, are happy and healthy. This is just one of the many stories we hear daily that make our work truly worthwhile.

We provide services to the entire family, which sets us apart.

Being able to help people in this way and meet their needs is so important. Sometimes victims flee without food or clothing, diapers or formula. We have a small pantry to help with those necessities. Developing our supervised visitation program has also worked its magic and eased survivors’ fear of seeing their offenders or encountering them. Most survivors we work with want their abusive partners to still have contact with their children. Many survivors will say, I need to go back because of my kids; they need to have a relationship with both of their parents. We’ve been able to structure a way to keep both parents connected to their children without putting one of them in danger. We provide neutral dropoffs and pickups and monitored phone calls or Zoom calls. In doing this, hopefully, we can keep victims safe while their kids maintain a good and healthy relationship with both parents.

How are you using the funds raised from the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program? We use the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program funds for emergency services. Often, survivors need things like transportation, a safe house or a hotel room until we can get them into a shelter, or they need emergency food support. These are all examples of how the funds earned in the Community Bag program are used to help survivors.

Is there anything you would like to add? If someone needs our services or is simply interested in helping to support the work that Family and Community Resources do, visit our website at www.fcr-ma.org for help and information. It’s incredible how many individuals contact us for services through our website because they can do it confidentially without being tracked by their abuser.

Patricia Kelleher has been with Family and Community Resources, Inc. (FCR) since 1991 as an advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, founding the State of Massachusett’s first supervised visitation center. Her involvement grew in 1998 when she took the position she holds today as President/CEO.

02 Feeding the hungry in our community. LONG ISLAND BEACH SOUP KITCHEN The Long Beach Soup Kitchen has been consistently serving meals and providing a food pantry to individuals and families in need in their community since 1983. Stop & Shop has supported this organization through the Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs.

Tell us about the Long Beach Soup Kitchen Our mission is straightforward. We are here to feed our food-insecure neighbors in the community. We ask no questions. There are no parameters for how or why you’re using our services. The Long Beach Soup Kitchen has been around since 1983. We were one of about 15 soup kitchens started by the Interfaith Nutrition Network out of Hempstead, New York. They allowed us to use their nonprofit information and numbers so that we could exist initially through them as a parent company. Then, about six or seven years ago, we established our nonprofit entity. Today, we are the only nonsectarian soup kitchen in Long Beach. And we’ve now been in the same location for about 20 years. We are very grateful to the city of Long Beach for allowing us to use this fantastic facility.

Before the pandemic, we served anywhere from 20 to 30 guests daily. Now our numbers have considerably increased to serving around 60 to 90. The outdoor dining consists of a cold lunch: a sandwich, juice box, bag of cookies and potato chips or fruit. We also give each guest a hot meal, consisting of a hot soup daily, a hot protein, a carb or vegetable, and possibly a salad if we have the ingredients. We try our best to give everybody the most nutritious meal possible.

It’s very fulfilling to see all our cooks in action each day. Another volunteer coordinator and I will start the process by giving them a protein to make each day. Then, they’re on their own regarding how they’d like to prepare it. It’s restaurant-quality food served in a restaurant-quality kitchen.

What services do you provide to the community? Since the pandemic, we have been serving only meals to-go. We feel at this time; we are able to address the needs of many who may prefer to get a to-go meal and have access to a food pantry.

What sets you apart from other nonprofits in your community?

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization.

We’re the only nonprofit in our area that does lunch and hot soup daily. And as I said earlier, we’re nonsectarian. We have no affiliation with any religion. Anybody can feel comfortable to come and enjoy our meals.

I could spend hours telling stories. Every day we have a sense of satisfaction and gratitude for everyone who works to address the needs in our community. Over the course of years, there have been many guests who express their thanks, and this validates our mission. One of the things that we’re most impressed with is that we’re a completely volunteer organization. Anybody willing to donate knows that 100 percent of the funds help feed those less fortunate.

We’re the only nonprofit in our area that does lunch and hot soup daily.

Every day we have a sense of satisfaction and gratitude for everyone who works to address the needs in our community.

Unlike other pantries, we do not ask for anything from any of our guests. We are a no-questionsasked soup kitchen. And I think that makes us a haven for people concerned about immigration issues. Our pantry provides both Spanish and English signs and handouts to ensure there is communication within our diverse community.

The proudest thing in my handful of years is that we were one of the only soup kitchens that never closed a single day during the pandemic. We stayed open six days a week for those two years without ever needing to close because we kept our volunteer base very tight. There were eight of us running the soup kitchen every single day. We knew exactly who was doing what, and no one else came in. We have a volunteer who is an ex-nurse, so she was a big help in creating protocols to put in place. When I tell any other person, they’re dumbfounded that we could have kept those controls in place and never closed. We are so proud that we were able to do this. It was very tough at the height of the pandemic. There was hardly any access to food, and people were afraid to go to stores. We often served around 120 meals a day, which we weren’t prepared for. But we made do and continued to support them. I’m so gratified that we figured this out on the fly and then began making adjustments and learning what was needed. The collaboration of the volunteers who were committed to doing the job we needed to do made the most significant difference.

What is your most outstanding achievement or contribution to the community? When I started, we barely had two nickels to rub together. There were no fundraising efforts. The old management team was concerned about the optics of having a soup kitchen in Long Beach. I came from a sales management background, which allowed me to bring that experience and perspective to the organization. We went from what they thought were terrible optics to: let’s put ourselves out there and ensure the community knows what we’re doing. We can garner fundraising money from people concerned and conscious that every community has a problem. We didn’t even have 30 homeless people in Long Beach at the time. There were only a few, and then those that needed the service, no questions asked. Over the years, we have built ourselves up to be a prominent nonprofit. The Long Beach Soup Kitchen is well-known in the community, and it seems as if year after year, more local businesses, schools, organizations and neighbors join in our efforts to provide for the kitchen, which helps greatly. When we started fundraising at different functions, fairs and parades, people would say, “I’ve lived in Long Beach all my life, and I didn’t know there was a soup kitchen.” I’d say, “We’ve been here for 25 years and need your support.” My guidance and the support of all our volunteers have gotten us to a point where Stop & Shop and other organizations know we’re around and have committed to helping us. We are so proud that the work that we do is very effective. We go through a lot of food. And without the support, we couldn’t do what we’re doing.

We are so proud that the work that we do is very effective. We go through a lot of food. And without the support, we couldn’t do what we’re doing. What do you want people to know about the Long Beach Soup Kitchen? The Long Beach Soup Kitchen is no-questions-asked. Anybody can join us for a meal. We serve our meal from 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. every day. And we are welcoming to everyone and anyone; we will do whatever we can to help our guests within our capabilities.

How are you using the funds raised from the Stop & Shop Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs? That’s a simple answer. We serve 15,000 meals a year, and money is instrumental in continuing our mission. We have no paid employees. We use the funds exclusively to help feed our guests with healthy, nutritious meals six days a week. Also, we went from paper goods, Styrofoam and plastic to almost 75 percent recycled material. We decided that all the to-go containers and soup cups would no longer be Styrofoam. We purchase only sustainable recycled products. Some of these funds went to support this effort, and it’s been great for the communities and the ecology. Anything we get from the Stop & Shop Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs goes directly to our guests through our meals. This is an important thing for people to know. When you donate, you often never know what percentage of the money is actually used for its intended purposes. With the Long Beach Soup Kitchen, 100% of what is donated goes directly to helping our community. We truly do the best that we can with what we have.

Robert Blau is the Volunteer Coordinator for the Long Beach Soup Kitchen.

03 Empowering Girls. Transforming Lives. I-TRI i-tri is an inclusive, immersive, community-based program that fosters self-respect, personal empowerment, self-confidence, positive body image and healthy lifestyle choices for adolescent girls. They train them to complete a youth-distance triathlon as a metaphor for life’s journey, giving them the opportunity to set seemingly impossible goals and helping them gain the tools to achieve those goals. Stop & Shop has supported this organization through the Community Bag Program.

Tell us about i-tri i-tri is an empowerment program for middle school girls through the sport of triathlon. We’re a goal-based organization, and the goal for our girls is to complete a youth distance triathlon. Along their journey to the FINISH LINE, our participants gain physical, mental and emotional skills, build resilience, healthy habits and a growth mindset that lasts a lifetime! i-tri was founded in 2010 at Springs School in East Hampton, on the East End of Long Island. After a lifetime of never being an athlete, I did a triathlon in my 30s, and it just changed my whole being. I had always dealt with very low self-esteem and never thought I could do something as big as that. Through the process of setting that goal and working towards it, everything in my life changed, including how I viewed myself and the world around me. Everything changed for the better.

That first year, we started with ten girls. The next group was 24 girls, and today, we are in 13 schools on Long Island, from Montauk to Mastic, and more than a thousand girls have crossed the finish line!

Years later, my daughter was about to go into middle school when I was still doing triathlons and getting more adults involved in the sport. At the time, I reflected on what a hard time in life middle school can be. It occurred to me that if I had learned everything about myself that I did in my 30s earlier in life, I would have saved myself a lot of trouble! And so that’s where the idea came from. What if we took a group of girls who didn’t necessarily consider themselves athletes or who were dealing with issues at home or struggling in all the ways we do during adolescence and gave them all of the tools, the training, the support and the LOVE, necessary to complete a big goal- like doing a triathlon? So, I went to my daughter’s small public school down the street from me. I had been a teacher before having her and volunteered a lot at the school, so they knew who I was. But still, to this day, I laugh, saying, “I can’t believe they ever let me do this!” So, I pitched this idea to them, and they gave me so much support. Sharon McCobb, who today is our Athletic Director had been training youth to do a triathlon, was on board from day one- creating not only the physical training component of the program- but creating the first-ever youth distance triathlon in our area.

What services do you provide to the community? Number one, first and foremost, is that the program itself is entirely free to any girl who finds their way to us. We partner with the local schools, and they help us by giving us space to operate after school. They also help us in the recruitment phase so that we can make sure that the program is available to girls who can benefit the most. We meet twice a week, once after school for two hours and then on Saturdays. The first hour is our empowerment curriculum, which is very aligned with New York State standards and social-emotional learning. Our program is very mind, body and spirit. As we know, we’re in the midst of a mental health crisis, especially with adolescents. So that is where the true focus of our program is. As much as it is an athletic goal, the real goal is to have these kids realize how important it is to love and appreciate themselves. i-tri is about feeling good and feeling good every step of the way. And yes, you’ll make it to the finish line, but for some of these kids, it’s the first time that anybody’s ever believed in them in a way that matters.

As much as it is an athletic goal, the real goal is to have these kids realize how important it is to love and appreciate themselves. And that’s the job of our incredible program staff who identify that special spark in each one of these girls and really foster that and have a connection. We have great athletic coaches who will get them to the finish line, but it’s really what happens in those empowerment sessions that is so important. If you read any of the studies right now, especially coming out of Covid, it’s a very different world than we grew up in. Exposure to social media is pervasive and not contained. Trying to keep kids off social media is very hard to do. We give the girls time to connect in person because that’s what’s missing. They’re not communicating with each other away from screens. We offer these big blocks of time to be in “community” with peers and trusted adults without phones- you can’t ride a bike, swim or run and still be on your phone. All of our staff and organization have training in something called trauma-informed care and coaching. Our methods are very empathetic and have been making a huge difference, especially with kids dealing with anxiety and depression, which we see increasingly every year. We also have an integrated STEM curriculum so that while we’re doing the program, we are also introducing high-level STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) concepts because we know that girls, especially when they enter high school, a lot of times choose to drop out of sports and higher-level classes. For example, we have girls swim a lap in the pool; then we ask them to put on a hoodie and swim a lap. Guess what? You’ve just felt dragged. When they get to high school and take physics, they already understand that concept through experiential learning. We find that our girls go into high school after completing a triathlon, thinking, “If I can do that, I can do anything!” So, they are continuing with sports and taking higher-level math and science classes. Many of our girls have gone on to get medical/nursing degrees and work in tech firms and other STEM-related fields.

What sets you apart from other nonprofits in your community? We’re very fortunate to be on the East End of Long Island. This community has such a tradition of philanthropy, but there’s such a dichotomy in income. We have great affluence here, but we also have people experiencing homelessness, a large immigrant population, and everything in between. All the different socioeconomic strata are represented here. We do work together with a lot of the nonprofits serving youth in our community, but the fact that we don’t charge anything is a key differentiator. Also, we stay closely connected with our alumnae. There are always opportunities that come up that we can pass on to our alums.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization. I’ll share one that’s stayed with us all these years. As I said, we are in schools from Montauk to Mastic, and the income level is very low in Mastic. Many of our participants from that district are housing insecure, and transportation is always an issue. In our first year in that district, we had a very large group, and one of the girls, Stacey, was incredibly tough. She would shut down or talk back. She wouldn’t want to do whatever we were doing. She was just very difficult. We got to about midway through the season and did this lesson called Love Letters. In this lesson, the girls are asked to write a love letter to themselves as a way to improve their self-esteem. So, everyone was writing; she started and then stopped. I asked her, “What’s going on?” She said that she couldn’t do it. I asked if I could take a look at what she had written, and I said, “That’s a really good start. Do you mind if I write?” She agreed. So, I wrote, “I am so proud of who you are. I know it hasn’t been easy. I know that everyone in your family depends on you. Your siblings depend on you, and it doesn’t leave you a lot of time to be yourself. But you really do shine; your friends look up to you, and you really are such a leader.” Then, I said, “Why don’t you take a look at this and add some stuff?” Then I walked away, but I saw her reading it; she looked at me and then read it again. And then, she started writing and writing and writing. It was like a floodgate had opened. But I don’t see what she wrote; it goes in her journal. That afternoon, we’re doing the fitness part of the program. First, we have to run. Guess who’s first in the running? She is now. Then we go into the pool. Who is first in the water? She is. Who’s the first to do the lesson and then help the girl behind her? She is. Everything changed after that moment. Somebody was able to see her for who she was, recognize her and allow her to soften a little bit. This kid was experiencing homelessness, living in a motel room with her single mother and 4 siblings, cooking dinner in a microwave each night and had gone through such turmoil. So, fast forward. The next year we went to the school for a meeting, and the principal asked us, “What did you do with Stacey?” We just looked at each other and thought, “Oh no…what happened?” She said, “I don’t know what you guys did, but last year before i-tri, she was in my office at least once a week for discipline. Do you know how many times she’s been in my office this year? Zero times. Do you know who we’re bringing to the elementary school to talk to the younger kids about coming up to the middle school? Stacey.” The transformation of this girl was just stunning.

What is your most outstanding achievement or contribution to the community?

What we can do for these kids and their families never stopped during COVID. We kept them engaged even though we had to go virtual, and we know firsthand that we saved some lives. There were some kids in critical mental health states that we were able to get to services. You talk to the principals at the high school level, and they’ll tell you that, in so many instances, the student leaders at the high school are i-tri alums. They come through our program and are just better humans on the other side because they realize they’re worthy of the effort and they’re loved and lovable. And that makes all the difference, and it spreads through the community.

They come through our program and are just better humans on the other side because they realize they’re worthy of the effort and they’re loved and lovable.

What do you want people to know about i-tri? Being a nonprofit offering free services doesn’t mean we don’t have expenses. To keep the quality of our programs going, it’s so important that we have strategic partnerships like we do with Stop & Shop, for which we’re so grateful. But it is important to spread the word and get people to know about us and hopefully donate their time or their dollars to support us.

How are you using the funds raised from the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program? They’re used directly for program supplies or program equipment.

Theresa Roden is the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of i-tri.

Ending the cycle of homelessness through education SCHOOL ON WHEELS MASSACHUSETTS School can be challenging enough for students today, but when they are homeless, it adds an entirely different level of difficulty. And that’s where School on Wheels of Massachusetts comes in. Stop & Shop has supported this nonprofit through the Community Bag Program.

Tell us about School on Wheels of Massachusetts. Here at School on Wheels, we support the academic, social and emotional growth of students impacted by homelessness. We serve students in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

We have positive, caring adults to tutor students affected and impacted by homelessness in an after-school setting. We were founded in 2004 by teacher and child advocate Cheryl Opper. She was a schoolteacher in the Easton, Massachusetts, Public Schools System. She realized that no matter what community you are in, students and families are impacted by homelessness. It started in her basement collecting backpacks. The program quickly progressed to tutoring students in multiple shelters, primarily in the Brockton, Massachusetts, area, and then grew to Southeast Massachusetts. Fast forward to today, we’re in over 20 locations tutoring students. The idea of School on Wheels is for our team to bring the tutoring service to you. We have positive, caring adults to tutor students affected and impacted by homelessness in an after-school setting.

What services do you provide to the community? It starts with a backpack. Towards the end of the summer, most families go back-to-school shopping, and they’ve got lists from their teachers of what supplies they need. Often, a backpack with all the supplies needed for one school year can be hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s deciding between dinner or a fully stocked backpack for school. We want to take that burden from our families.

School on Wheels partners with the local school systems for our backpack program. They help us identify the students in need, and we’re putting together thousands of backpacks throughout the summer. Then the schools help deliver them before the school year starts. We never want to hear that a student doesn’t have a backpack or a notebook. Kids should always feel prepared on the first day of school. To be able to give students the confidence that they are ready for school is such a blessing. We’re proud to have given out over 7,000 backpacks in Massachusetts this fall. From there, our tutoring program comes into play. Our volunteers tutor students during the school year, kindergarten through high school; then, we transition students to our Bridge Mentoring program, where we partner college-age students with an adult mentor. These volunteer mentors come from various types of professional industries and age demographics. They guide what life will be like after high school, helping students set career goals and navigate the tricky path of education and how it could help advance their career goals. In addition to the mentor, we also provide students with financial assistance to eliminate any roadblocks to their education. We’re fortunate to have about a hundred students a year in our Bridge program and help them overcome those barriers to their education. We want to be there for our students and frequently go beyond what you think is traditional financial assistance for education. We offer help so that little obstacles don’t add up and deter our students from their long-term goals of staying on track and getting their education. For some of our students, we help with tuition for driver’s ed because they have part-time jobs and need transportation.

What sets you apart from other nonprofits in your community? School on Wheels lives by the pillars of child education and the empowerment of families affected by homelessness. The organization is primarily about student education, but it doesn’t stop there. If a student’s family needs support, we are there. Let’s say, for example, that a family is moving from one shelter to another or from one shelter to an apartment; we will help them. We’re there for our families when they need us. Our volunteers and staff go above and beyond to empower the families of our students for success. And that family empowerment sets us apart.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization. It is challenging for refugee families coming to Massachusetts. Our community partners have raised their hands and said, yes, we’ll provide shelters for these families. Often these families are housed in shelters and because of overcrowding, more recently they are housed at hotels. We are asked to help the students in these families as they encounter language barriers and enter into a new public school system. We are currently serving at a hotel in Kingston, with an open house night. Forty-four students signed up. It was amazing. When we do School on Wheels open houses, we provide pizza, which is usually why people go, and then they sign up for tutoring. At this most recent open house, our team was setting up the pizza station and a station with books and toys. And all the students passed over the pizza and went straight for the books and toys. We were pleasantly surprised.

We started tutoring the first night during the open house. They were just so eager to learn and get some help. I worked with a group of kindergartners by reading to them. Someone who is reading along with them and helping them understand the words is a great way to learn English. During this session, I was reading a story about an eagle. Every time one little girl saw the eagle, she would put her arms out like she was flying and say, “Eagle fly, eagle fly!” It was the cutest thing. These events are where it starts for our students. Our annual gala also presents success stories that we are proud to share. One of our Bridge Program students is asked to speak and tell his or her School on Wheels story. Last year we had a young man named Candido share how he found School on Wheels. We partnered him up with a mentor. He ended up enrolled in UMass Dartmouth in an engineering program. Our team helped him with financial assistance, books for school and gas cards because he worked a part-time job while in school— anything to help him stay on track to achieve his goals. Candido was getting ready to graduate, so his mentor was helping him with interview prep. And I remember giving him my suit jacket because I noticed we were the same size. He called a couple of weeks later to say he got a job offer. School on Wheels is proud to have helped Candido earn his degree and get a great job. I’m fortunate to be able to do this work. It takes a community of people who want to help, whether volunteers or funders, to keep our mission going.

What is your most outstanding achievement or contribution to the community? Every year we have at least ten high school and college graduates. Statistics show that if not for intervention from organizations like School on Wheels, students impacted by homelessness or poverty during their lives aren’t likely to graduate. We’re changing those statistics and giving these students opportunities.

Those little barriers, like lack of confidence or not knowing that they can do it, are what School on Wheels is proud to help students overcome. They just need that little support.

Positive encouragement makes a difference. A young man named Darren came to School on Wheels in the fourth grade. He worked with one of our first volunteer tutors. This tutor started working with Darren on his math; Darren would say, “I’m dumb in math. I just don’t get it.” But his tutor kept working to give him that confidence. A positive, caring role model, week after week, can get a student over that hump. Darren’s tutor stayed with him through elementary school and then began mentoring him in high school. Darren wanted to become an electrician, so we got him into a trade school. He is now in his mid-twenties, and last spring, he graduated with his electrical certificate. Darren has a great career that he loves. Darren and his mentor often would have their meetings during coffee or breakfast. Recently they went out to breakfast, and Darren was able to say, “I got this.” when the check came. They were both so proud of Darren’s accomplishments that led up to him now being able to pick up the tab. Those little barriers, like lack of confidence or not knowing that they can do it, are what School on Wheels is proud to help students overcome. They just need that little support.

What do you want people to know about your organization? We believe that education is the long-term solution to end homelessness. School on Wheels is here for students, letting them know they can do it. We’re providing a path to success. The way to end the cycle of homelessness is through schooling so students never need shelter or assistance from a food pantry. We aim to help students get that job and feel self-sufficient and successful.

How are you using the funds raised from the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program? Every year we’re committed to our programs. The backpacks give students the confidence that they’re prepared for the school year, and it takes that burden off families, so they don’t have to choose between a meal or school supplies. We want to be able to say yes to a student that needs our Bridge program in college when their syllabus calls for $500 worth of books. We know statistics show that, unfortunately, most folks drop out after the first year. We want students to have positive, caring adult mentors checking in on them, letting them know to stick with it because they can do this. The Stop & Shop Community Bag Program funds will be critical to help us continue our programs

Is there anything you’d like to add? There are many ways to get involved at School on Wheels, whether you want to help put together backpacks, stage a backpack drive in your community or become a volunteer tutor or mentor. Please visit our website for more information, www.sowma.org. We truly appreciate the donations that we receive; they help School on Wheels continue our mission!

Steve Telesmanick is Chief Executive Officer of School on Wheels Massachusetts.

Serving women who served. BARBARA GIORDANO FOUNDATION The Barbara Giordano Foundation, Inc. is committed to being recognized as a premiere holistic wellness resource that addresses the unique emotional, physical and personal needs of women veterans throughout the United States. Stop & Shop has supported this organization through the Community Bag Program.

Tell us about The Barbara Giordano Foundation.

The Barbara Giordano Foundation was named after my sister, who was involved in the field of health and wellness as a nurse, a hospital administrator and a holistic wellness coach, focusing on using techniques such as imagery, meditation and hands-on modalities for healing. All of this occurred more than 40 years ago when this type of approach to health was not widely known or accepted. Barbara’s vision was to create an organization that supported women’s empowerment through the use of holistic wellness experiences. The foundation was founded in 1996, the year that Barbara passed. Initially, our focus was on all women. However, on our 20th anniversary several years ago, the board was drawn to one particular group of women who had been overlooked and were under-serviced and undervalued. There were many veterans’ organizations, but practically none focused solely on women. Therefore, we agreed to embrace women veterans as the particular group of women who would benefit from our help. So, our mission is simple. First, we provide women veterans with holistic wellness tools that address their unique challenges after transitioning from military service. And second, we educate the public about the vital role that women have always played in protecting our nation. Ever since the American Revolution, women have been actively engaged without recognition.

What services do you provide to the community? The services that we offer, again, all focus on holistic wellness. There are two things that I really want everyone to know about those services. One, we don’t look to replicate something else that’s being done widely. Rather, we want to provide holistic tools that these women veterans cannot easily get or access elsewhere, either because they’re not available or too expensive. And second, everything we offer is free to women veterans. We never want the issue of money to impede them from participating and working toward their wellness. I also want to add that our programs are developed so every woman veteran can participate–even those with physical limitations.

A wide variety of programs are offered, but there’s definitely that holistic wellness theme throughout. We provide equine therapy, both virtually and in person. We also provide a series of workshops, again both virtually and in person, using pets as healers because not everybody’s comfortable with or has access to a horse. A lot of the women veterans have dogs or cats, and actually, some of the women veterans even have therapeutic pigs. We work with all of those animals. We also provide sound therapy, emotional freedom techniques, which sometimes people know as tapping, and music therapy. Additionally, we also have individual workshops on topics such as diverse issues such as clutter; clutter seems to be a very big problem for women veterans because they leave the military with a lot of what they call their “stuff.” Then they don’t know what to do with it, how to organize it and take care of it. They feel overwhelmed, stressed and view themselves as failures. We have facilitated workshops on plants and how they can be used as a healing modality. Sometimes people can’t have animals, but they can have a plant, and plants are living organisms, so we work with that. We reach people where they are. Personal safety is another very big issue. We have many women veterans who tell us that they don’t leave their homes because they don’t feel safe due to their experiences in the military. The foundation does not provide therapy but rather proven holistic techniques for empowerment, stress reduction and well-being. These tools allow women to rejoin the world and see it through a different lens. Additionally, we also do one- and two-day retreats online and in person. Before the pandemic, we were doing everything in person, focusing on the tri-state area, which for us is New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. But with Zoom, we opened up to the whole country. So now, we have women from every state participating in our programs. That’s particularly important to us, not only because it broadens our reach but because the women are excited to be able to connect with other women in other parts of the country.

What sets you apart from other nonprofits in your community?

I think there are several things. First, all of our services are free. Lack of financial resources is a serious problem for many women veterans. More women veterans are under-employed, not employed and homeless than their male counterparts. The other thing that the women tell us that is really important to them is that we are an organization for women that is run by women. I want to stress that the foundation is here for all women veterans. We listen to what they tell us they need. We didn’t just jump into this and start producing programs for women veterans. We spoke with them for the first year and a half and asked, “What is it that you need? What is it that you’re not getting?” And they were shocked that people were actually asking them rather than telling them. Some of the individual workshops–dealing with clutter and loneliness–directly result from the women telling us their stories.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization. A woman veteran participated in several of our virtual programs, and she reached out because she was in an abusive relationship and was homeless. She was in Virginia; she had reached out to the Veterans Administration but hadn’t gotten the help she needed. She turned to us because, she said, “I knew that I could get help through the foundation because I was always made to feel safe, supported and heard.” Through the connections of the foundation, we got her housing immediately and then ensured that she would get the therapeutic services that she required to break free of that pattern of abuse. She’s now living in her own beautiful house with a good-paying job, back in school and looking to train to become a wellness practitioner!

What is your most outstanding achievement or contribution to the community? Besides having the honor to meet and help women veterans, our most outstanding accomplishment is establishing the first Peace Garden dedicated to women veterans in the United States. It’s a beautiful spot filled with flowers. Each flower was selected because it has a meaning for our veterans. For example, one type of flower means courage, another one means bravery and another means loyalty.

It’s in a public place because we want everybody who sits there to not only find comfort and beauty but also to look at the signage and think about the over 3 million women veterans who sacrificed so much for us. 36

What do you want people to know about The Barbara Giordano Foundation? The programs that we offer are all facilitated by the very best women practitioners in their respective areas. We strive to get those people wherever they are. We actually have a woman who facilitated sound therapy for us, she was in Switzerland at the time, but she was renowned and phenomenal, and we were delighted to be able to partner. The beauty of technology is that we can bring in experts from anywhere.

How are you using the funds raised from the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program? The board is committed to putting all our resources and funds raised into programs for women veterans. We run on a very tight budget–we make every cent count. So the funds from the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program go to programming and also toward the upkeep of the Peace Garden. Besides the money, the people who frequent the stores where we were selected and saw our signage visited the Peace Garden and sent us pictures showing themselves sitting there. That was definitely an additional benefit of this incredible program.

I have to say how grateful we are to Stop & Shop for this program and for being selected. Is there anything you would like to add? Our ultimate goal is to establish a physical site as a holistic wellness center for women veterans. I think women have found over history that we have to help each other to really get things done. We’re looking for somebody to understand this vision and understand the need. Having women come from all over the country to be with other women veterans in a safe environment would be incredibly powerful and empowering. We’re willing to do the hard work to make this happen.

Virginia Giordano is the Founder and Chairperson of The Barbara Giordano Foundation.

Helping feed more people, better. ISLAND GROWN INITIATIVE OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD The student gardeners at Oak Bluffs School shown above participate in Island Grown Schools, the farm-to-school program of Island Grown Initiative of Martha’s Vineyard. That program is just one in an array established by this nonprofit organization. Stop & Shop has supported Island Grown Initiative through the Bloomin’ 4 Good and Community Bag Programs.

Tell us about Island Grown Initiative of Martha’s Vineyard. Island Grown Initiative (IGI) builds a regenerative and equitable food system on Martha’s Vineyard. We have a vibrant agricultural heritage on the Island, with dozens of small, local family-run farms in our community. The organization started in 2005 when a group of farmers, grocers, mothers and other stakeholders in the local food community got together to think about what was needed to support our local farming families and strengthen our local food systems. They started by making a map of where all the farms were on the Island and what each of our farms offered. After creating the map, the group discovered that much more needed to happen to ensure that our local farmers were well-supported and that everyone living on the Island was well-fed. Recognizing there were many problems in our food system, we developed a suite of programs to make significant, lasting changes. We started with our children by launching Island Grown Schools, our farm-to-school program. Teaching gardens were installed in all schools and 11 preschools on the Island. The team also started working with cafeteria directors on local food sourcing for schools so that kids weren’t just learning about food through their school gardens but getting access to local food in their meals. From there, a curriculum was developed because we realized every subject could be taught through the lens of food and farming. A whole generation of Island kids started with the food education program in preschool and now have graduated from high school.

Since our start, we have diversified our programming. Our programs now center on three areas: education, food equity and the 42-acre farm in the middle of the Island where we do regenerative farming. We grow about 70,000 pounds of produce annually, roughly half of which is donated to Islanders in need through our food equity programs and local partners.

What services do you provide to the community? As an island community, we have evolved to think about our local food system as a living structure, working on every piece of the system, starting with food production. Alongside our local libraries, we help run a community seed library, where the team conducts workshops for people to learn how to save their seeds. There is a seed collection card catalog where people bring saved seeds and share them freely. Locals check out seeds, plant them and bring the saved seeds from their plants back to the collection. This has been in operation for about eight years. Over time, you start to develop locally adapted seeds that fit your environment and are delicious. The fantastic thing is that you can save seeds, for example, from one lettuce plant and then get more seeds you can use yourself. So, built into seed saving is a sense of community sharing.

As an island community, we have evolved to think about our local food system as a living structure, working on every piece of the system, starting with food production. Seeds are one of the roots of the local food system. Over the last few generations with industrial agriculture, we’ve lost so much of the diversity of our crops. Over 90% of the biodiversity of the foods that we eat has been lost. As the number of seed companies shrinks, we don’t have as much food security as we need going into the future of changing climate. Helping people learn the age-old practice of seed saving is something that we love doing. Then we move on to food production. Our beautiful 42-acre farm is in the middle of Martha’s Vineyard. Island Grown Initiative uses what we call regenerative agriculture practices. This utilizes very little tillage and allows grazing animals into the rotation of our crops. We keep living plants on the land all year and use cover crops that help capture the sun’s energy and feed the soil’s biology. Healthy soils help make sure that the food we grow is nutritionally-dense. Our farm strives to demonstrate how to grow food in a way that has positive environmental ripple effects, creating more positive outcomes and developing a diversity of crops with a focus on donating that food to those most in need.

Island Grown Initiative is helping everybody know how to be a food producer. We support food production through our school gardens. We teach every island kid, about 2,300 kids a year, how to grow food. Through the school gardens, we have created living laboratories in every school where they can see how food is grown and participate in that process through the seasons.

One of our core beliefs at IGI is that all people should have the right to good quality, nutritious food, and so we have a strong focus on food equity in all the work we do. Some of our programs focus on people who need to have access to free food. There are about 3,200 enrolled members in our food pantry, which is more than 10% of our year-round population.

Adult education about food production is something we do as well. We organize a regenerative backyard gardeners’ network where we host classes throughout the year on how to grow fruit trees and perennial food crops and how to compost at home.

We have our gleaning program, an age-old practice of going out to farms after the harvest to pick what’s left for people in need. We purpose-grow over 160,000 servings of fresh vegetables at our farm for donation, and glean at a number of other local farms as well. An incredible team of volunteers picks the food, and we donate it to the pantry, schools and senior centers. We also have a reduced-price mobile farmer’s market that goes around to different Island neighborhoods to provide locals with fresh seasonal food. We also see our school-based programming as food equity work. Since we launched Island Grown Schools, the percentage of children who qualified for free or reducedprice school meals went from 12% to over 50% at many of our schools. School meals became cornerstones of child and family food security, but there were no meal options when schools were closed. So we started a Community Lunch Program that offers free lunches during summer and school vacation weeks to provide food support for anyone in need.

What sets you apart from other nonprofits in your community? We’ve become the go-to agency for food on the Vineyard. Island Grown Initiative is the organization that’s in the middle of a vibrant local food and food equity advocacy community, helping build this local food system that looks at food production and access.

Working collaboratively helped us come up with the innovative solutions we needed to keep our community food needs met. Our team organizes a group called the Island Food Equity Network that brings together 25 different organizations, including schools, healthcare centers, senior centers and farms, all thinking about how to keep our community well-fed. The Food Equity Network meets roughly once a quarter to identify shared needs and opportunities to collaborate. It’s easy to get siloed when doing community work, and it has been powerful to see how much we can do when we work together. The Network became particularly important when COVID hit, when food was in short supply and food needs skyrocketed. Working collaboratively helped us come up with the innovative solutions we needed to keep our community food needs met.

Tell us a story that illustrates the good work of your organization. There is a lot of seasonal employment on the Vineyard, so many working parents are busy in the summer, and it’s hard to keep kids fed and well supported. We started the community lunch program to help this need. We would make food in our central location, volunteers would package the meals and bring them out to the lunch sites, and more volunteers would come to help serve the lunches. People started lining up. It was the whole scope of the Island summer, and all were welcome. There was a woman who must have been in her 80s and was the primary caretaker for her husband, who had Alzheimer’s disease. Rather than sitting at home by themselves all day, she would bring him to our community lunches. They would sit at tables with kids and parents, and we would all share a meal. I remember looking at her sitting next to one of the kids who came regularly, and down the table at people that represented a wide spectrum of races, abilities, and income levels. Everyone was talking with each other about their days, their summers, their lives, sharing the same delicious food and telling stories. This is the power of a strong local food system. Food can bring us together across all our divisions, and that’s what we want for our community.

What is your most outstanding achievement or contribution to the community? To me, one of our greatest accomplishments so far is that we have been able to develop a solid universal food education and good food program for all our Island children. The pandemic underscored that providing children with food is one of the essential roles of our schools. Many families rely on the breakfast and lunches that their children get at school. When schools were closed during the pandemic, it threw many people into challenging circumstances around having enough food to eat and feed their children. We started figuring out how to get good quality, nutritious meals to kids and families. We were able to work with all our schools and incredibly dedicated cafeteria staff to make this happen.

What do you want people to know about your organization? Martha’s Vineyard is often thought of as a wealthy summer resort. But that is a narrow piece of this place. We have a year-round community that struggles with housing insecurity, the sky-high cost of living and seasonal unemployment. The challenge of food security is so fundamental for the people who live here. It’s incumbent on all of us to do what we can to ensure that the basic needs of our communities are being provided and that all people have access to good food with dignity. We care deeply about this, and it is at our work’s heart. We feel so proud of what we are able to do for this special place.

Making sure that all kids have an equal seat at the table to access good food feels so important. Making sure that all kids have an equal seat at the table to access good food feels so important. Kids understand why their food choices are important and how that supports being healthy. They are also gaining skills to grow food to provide food security for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. I feel so proud that we’ve been able to do this over the last 15 years.

How are you using the funds raised from the Stop & Shop Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs? Island Grown Initiative is so thankful for the funds and support provided by the Stop & Shop Community Bag and Bloomin’ 4 Good Programs. We’ve utilized funds received to support our food equity programming. The demand for food support through our food pantry has doubled since the start of the pandemic, and food costs have skyrocketed at the same time. Being able to provide for the needs of our community has gotten expensive, and we need and appreciate all the support we can get to ensure that our community’s food needs are met.

Noli Taylor is Senior Director, Programs at Island Grown Initiative. She is passionate about the power of food to bring communities together and deepen our relationship to the natural world. Noli began working with IGI in 2006.

2023

Impact Stories Stop & Shop Community Bag Program & Bloomin’ 4 Good Program

For more information about the programs and to view even more impact stories, please visit stopandshop.2givelocal.com

BAGS 4 MY CAUSE Melissa Hansen Senior Program Manager 603.380.9400, ext.109 melissah@psitmatters.com

BLOOMIN 4 GOOD Jim Brennan Co-Founder and COO 603.380.9400, ext.100 jimb@psitmatters.com