The Friends of Mascoma 2016 Annual Dinner is right around the corner. Get your tickets online today, space is limited!
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We did get a second place award in the parade for our colorful vehicles, many volunteers distributing water and candy..and our clowns!
We are the fortunate recipients of a beautiful new van that will be climate controlled to better enable us to travel and transport food for our Friends Feeding Friends Food Initiative. Thank you generous donor for investing in your community. We proudly showed our new vehicle in Enfield's Old Home Days Parade and passed out water and candy to our spectators. Please consider being a volunteer or donor to help support our many projects.
Our Garden Science summer class has some updates and has been taking some fantastic field trips. First picture was taken at D'Acres in Dorchester and gave the class an up close and personal time with their pigs. A very big thank you to the D'Acres crew who shared a meal with the class and taught them what is means to live sustainably. The second picture is Dave Shinnlinger, a MVRSD teacher, showing off his meat chickens and learning about the permaculture movement. Your donations help us sponsor exciting projects like this and provide opportunities for our students.
Participating Mascoma students qualify for ELO (Extended Learning Opportunity ) credit. The products from this garden will be consumed by individuals and families in our District. Thanks to Mrs. Heather Oliver for spearheading this great learning opportunity. FOM is delighted to be able to fund this and so appreciative to our donors who donated materials to be used.
Community Garden Science
Another one of our large projects in progress this summer! We are dedicated to preserving the generations mural at MVRHS. Thank you to MTD's Property Maintenance and Contractors and our generous donors who are making this preservation project possible. The mural removal went well and we are looking forward to reinstalling and restoring it later this year.
We surprised the crowd at Senior Awards on June 5, 2016, by announcing a total of $6500 to seven outstanding students. We are new on the scene! Thank you gracious donors for helping these students take steps to prepare for a successful life ahead. Please consider donating to us to offer this wonderful opportunity.
Left to right are Winny Cheng, Kenneth Severance-Camp, Barrett Morse, Andrea Bailey, Patrick Howard and Ben Jones. Not pictured is Madison Dow.
NH Gives on June 7 was a day of giving statewide to our local charities. Look how we did. Thank you to all of our supporters with your unselfies and donations! It was lots of fun! Look how we ended up!
Are you looking for something to do this summer? Do you like gardening? Do you like science? Do you want/need an extra 1/2 credit? All of the above? If so, check this out this Community Garden Science class being sponsored by Friends of Mascoma Foundation! As part of the class you will help construct raised garden beds at EVS.
Mrs. Mock's class at EVS has chicks hatching! Mrs. Mock received funding for an incubator through our teacher Mini-Grant Program and a generous local farm donated eggs for hatching. To help us to continue funding these projects please consider making a contribution to us. Go to:
www.friendsofmascoma.org/donate
Our "Art All Around Initiative" co-sponsored by The NH Craftsmen Guild is delighted to show you the beautiful work of Gary Wood, master wood craftsman, of Canaan. He worked with the advanced wood class (Dave Shinnlinger) to create this stunning cherrywood bench. Look for this in our Renovated High School in a prominent spot.
Gary Wood, a Canaan wood craftsman, has been working with students in Advanced Woods Class and are making beautiful benches to be placed in the renovated high school. Gary graciously donates his time and talents and Friends of Mascoma Foundation donates materials. Thank you, donors!
Our FOM trailer is all dressed up ready to travel to the NH Food Bank and upcoming events!
We thank Devin Tetreault and Fast Lane Grafix of Enfield for making signs for our pantries.
He picked us as a community service project for his Freshman Civics class. His parents, Sheri and Joe own Fast Lane Grafix , so this was a great opportunity to learn the family business also.
Look for these really cool signs at our pantries in Enfield and Canaan.
We are pleased to announce our 2015 Annual Report is now available online. If you have subscribed to our electronic newsletter, watch for copies in your email. Printed copies will be available at locations in all 5 towns soon!
Please click on the report below to view the full text and learn about the generous donors and organizations who have supported Friends of Mascoma since 2014.
Friends of Mascoma is grateful to our many valuable supporters and volunteers. We welcome members of the Mascoma community across the country and around the world to start or renew their membership for 2016 and look forward to another eventful year. Together we are working to create a prosperous future for our students and community.
An anonymous donor came to us with a challenge to raise $5000 to create an elementary school musical instrument bank to receive a dollar-for-dollar match. Beginning on November 1st, donations toward the match started to trickle in.
Our campaign received a huge shot of energy when two Mascoma Alumni, Brooks Hubbard and Hannah Hoffman, offered to play a concert that would also count toward the match. We knew they would draw an amazing crowd and needed a venue to suit. Luckily Mountain Meadow Golf Lounge and Event Center had just the place! Just when we thought things could not get much better, we found out Deciduous Brewery, co-owned by brewer and Mascoma Alum David Sakolsky, had sent up 2 kegs he helped craft. You can see a few of those brews in the photo below along with our two artist and many of the Mascoma Alumni who attended.
Nothing could stop Mascoma pride, not even a snow storm that caused events throughout the Mascoma Valley to be cancelled. Over 200 fans turned out to see Brooks and Hannah and midway through the concert we were able to announce we hit our match. Our community rose to the occasion! We even took the great Mascoma Alumni photo above. Many thanks to Mrs. Nancy Grout for the idea and for to Greg Hubbard for humoring us all to take a photo without warning or the right lighting.
This means 11 students who many not have been able to afford to play an instrument will get a chance!
Did you miss this great event? Subscribe to our Newsletter and occasional updates [here] and follow us on [Facebook] and [Twitter]. Want to help? We are always looking for [volunteers] and [donations]. Liking and sharing on social media helps too!
Friends of Mascoma Foundation (FOM), a 501(c)(3), was formed by a group of community advocates committed to supporting the needs of the Mascoma Valley Regional School District (MVRSD). FOM provides financial support to the MVRSD on initiatives that foster educational development for our students.
Core areas that FOM focuses on are:
The FOM Board of Directors and other community volunteers have been busy donating time and raising money to provide teachers and children access to opportunities that are currently beyond their reach. Over the past 20 months, they have implemented student scholarship and teacher mini-grant programs (officially launching in January/February 2016), supported collaborations with community artists and craftspeople in the schools, successfully fund-raised for an elementary school warm clothing drive, instrument bank, obtained funds through grant writing, and supported previously established programs. The School Board and Administration have been very helpful in allowing FOM access and supporting their agenda.
While there are many definitions to food insecurity, City Harvest (http://www.cityharvest.org/hunger-in-nyc/food-insecurity) describes it well:
“Food insecurity refers to USDA's measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members; limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all of the time. Food insecurity may reflect a household's need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate food.”
Over 40% of the Canaan Elementary School children and almost 30% of the Enfield Village School children qualify for free or reduced cost meals. The percentage is less in our middle and high school for many reasons, not the least of which may be children may not want to admit they lack adequate food at home.
The wonderful teachers and administrators of these schools have tried to assist by raising money and using their own money to help food insecure children get extra food to combat this issue. There are also various organizations in our 5 towns that try to make up the difference not only for children, but seniors, unemployed, disabled, and those with jobs that do not cover their food needs. In working with the teachers, administrators, and community organizations, it has become clear to FOM that this is not enough to move the District into a food secure state.
We have many people that need our help and we are asking people to donate time. We have two locations that need to be staffed currently. Our intention is to have volunteers fill the hours of operation. We now feel, upon consultation with the NH Food Bank, the Enfield and Canaan food pantries should each be open four hours per week. This entails two hours during the day, perhaps 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and two hours late afternoon/early evening hours, perhaps 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. We also need the volunteers to be there 30 minutes before opening to make sure shelves are properly stocked and organized.
We know that you are very busy, but we hope that with sufficient volunteers the effort can be kept to a minimum and the results maximized.
If you feel that this issue is important to you and you want to VOLUNTEER or have questions please email FOM: at food@friendsofmascoma.org. Please indicate the days and times you are available. This will allow FOM to structure the times of operation. Please let us know of any ideas you have to help improve and expand this new and evolving initiative.
You may also go online to donate to FOM Food Initiative at www.friendsofmascoma.org/donate. When you check out, select "Gift in Honor or in Memory of Someone" and write in “Food Pantry” as the designation. You may also mail checks to:
Friends of Mascoma Foundation, 340 Grafton Pond Road, Enfield, NH 03748
In September of 2014, the Economic Research Service at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its most recent report on food insecurity, indicating that 48 million people in the United States are living in food insecure households, 15 million of whom are children. While the magnitude of the problem is clear, national and even state estimates of food insecurity can mask the nuances that exist at the local level.
NH Food Bank Data
Learn more about food scarcity here in the NH Food Bank's"2014 Report to Our Community:" http://www.nhfoodbank.org//public/documents/Reporting%20to%20our%20Community_FINAL.pdf
We are working furiously on our newsletter to wrap up the exciting last 20 months, but we couldn't wait to show you a little teaser:
Not only did our 5 Communities support us in 2014 and 2015 with generous contributions, we received contributions from supporters all over New Hampshire ........and from:
We are working diligently on our first newsletter to bring you all up-to-date on our activities, projects, upcoming Initiatives and our donors and Take A Seat sponsors lists! Look for the very first Friends of Mascoma Newsletter soon!!!!
There are still donor plates available in all sections.
Friends of Mascoma will soon be posting a newsletter with all the purchased seats and sponsors from 2014-15.
Sign up for our mailing list to get updates about Friends of Mascoma program, campaigns, and opportunities to get involved!