Fall Mascoma Mixer

Our Fall Mascoma Mixer at Canaan Meeting House on September 16th was a blast! Kids played games and ran around while adults had time to relax and visit. Everyone had fun with the raffle and 16 winners took home prizes. Our 17th prize winner, John Nugent, very kindly donated his winnings from the 50/50 raffle back to FOM. Thank you John! Mickey's Roadside Cafe did an excellent job catering and everyone enjoyed the food. A big thank you to the Dowd's for donating their time cooking for the event.

This truly was a community event with lots of volunteers pitching in to help us set up and then staying to the end to help us clean up. We think it is safe to say that everyone left tired and happy to be part of this great community!

Summer & Fall Garden Program

FOM sponsored our second year of the garden program during 2017, this time at MVRHS. The program ran from June through August and a few of the students had so much fun we have continued it into the fall! We have been enjoying the harvest the past few weeks and look forward to harvesting more veggies on Sunday, plus trying our hand at making fresh salsa. Want to join us? Meet us at MVRHS at 1 pm on Sunday, October 1st!

Our final two sessions will be October 8th and 15th. We will do our final harvests, prepare the gardens and blueberry bushes for winter, and plant garlic and cover crops. This program was made possible by a grant from the Wellborn Ecology Fund through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

The Coop Food Stores Annual Case Lot Sale to Benefit FOM food pantries

Have you heard of the Coop Food Stores annual case lot sale? The case lot sale is from October 5th through October 7th at the Centerra Parkway location. It is a great opportunity to stock up on hundreds of items sold in bulk. We are grateful recipients, alongside Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, during the case lot sale.

When you fill out your order form you have the option to fill out a dollar amount for a donation and the Coop Food Stores will shop for us. Our food pantries serve the towns of Canaan, Dorchester, Enfield, Grafton, and Orange. Thank you in advance for your continued support!

Food Coop Case Lot Sale at Lebanon store.  October 5-7

Food Drives for Friends Feeding Friends Food Pantries Helps. Thank You!

Upper Valley Thunder  Snack Roundup yielded 63 pounds.

https://www.nhfoodbank.org/nh-tackles-hunger/.

450 pounds collected by our community on September 22 during MVRSD sports games and Homecoming Dance.  Thanks to our athletic director, John Kelly, for organizing.

Preparations Underway for Annual Winter Clothing & Coat Drive & Giveaway

Friends of Mascoma is gearing up for our Annual Winter Clothing and Coat Giveaway.

Do you have warm winter items to share? The need is always highest for infant through elementary school sizes. Please be sure donated items are in very good or like new condition.

Contact Beth Felix with any questions or to donate.

Friends of Mascoma Supports Mascoma Youth Sports League

Bryce Porter of Enfield is a member of the soccer team sponsored in our name this year.

Friends of Mascoma is fortunate to have a donor sponsor one Mascoma Youth Sports League team each season on our behalf. We enjoy seeing the students grow and learn valuable lessons. Don't those T-shirts look great too?!

Vital Communities Power of Produce Club for Kids

Kids can get a taste of local fruits and vegetables this month—plus their very own money to spend on fresh, local produce—with our new Power of Produce (POP) Club, happening the first three Sundays of September (the 3rd, 10th, and 17th) at the Canaan Farmers and Artisans' Market on the Town Green!

Power of Produce Clubs are simple, fun, and free. Children sign up at the POP table and start the day’s activity—a farmers' market scavenger hunt, a vegetable quiz, an art project, or a taste testing. Once they complete the activity, they return to the POP table to receive their POP Bucks: $3 tokens just for kids to spend on local fruits and vegetables here at the market. Kids ages 5-12 can participate once or every week.

So bring the kids and get a taste for POP! They just might start shopping for their own vegetables. The first three Sundays of September: September 3, 10, and 17, from 10 am-1 pm. Learn more here: vitalcommunities.org/pop.

Vital Communities is supporting our POP Club this summer with funding from the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Pennies for Change

Friends of Mascoma was selected by the Co-op Food Stores as a community partner in their Pennies for Change program in the month of July. Thank you to the generosity of shoppers and the Co-op we received over $5,900. That is a lot of pennies and we are grateful to everyone who rounded up in July!

Friends of Mascoma enters a Bid-A-Lunch Basket in Enfield Old Home Days

We entered a lunch basket made by Kaylee Felix, a 7th Grade MVRSD student.  She even used lettuce grown and picked at our Sponsored Summer Garden Science Program.  Lindsay Smith of Enfield had the winning bid.  Thanks to EOHD for allowing non-profits to enter and fundraise--and to Enfield Community Lutheran Church for organizing.   Community linking together to help each other!  Pictured above is our board member, Andrew Cushing.

Friends of Mascoma Foundation in the Enfield Old Home Days Parade, July 29!

FOM had board members, volunteers, kids and lots of treats to pass out to spectators!

We love to enter  and support community events.   Next up is Canaan Old Home Days, August 5.

Join in the fun and help us pass out treats.  Be at Williams Field in Canaan by 9:30.

Wear your FOM t-shirts, we will have some in the Foodie van, and the parade theme is Holidays, so to have some fun , wear something for any holiday!

Friends of Mascoma Participates in Grafton July 4, Celebration!

Representing us today in the Grafton Parade was Cheryl Tourville with Timmy and Matthew, Jill Feen, Colleen McCleary (our Garden Science Instructor ) and Board members, Andrew Cushing and Carolyn Cusick. We passed out yummy fruity snacks to spectators! Colleen hula hooped the whole way!    We love to show support for our communities.

MVRHS Spring Students of the Month Receive Special Perks

We had auction items at our 2016 Royal Renovation Celebration that were "Sponsor High School Students of the Month" with a special lunch and VIP parking.  Here are the spring student recipients and the auction items were sponsored by Carol Smith of Enfield and Ellen Hackeman of Enfield Center.  Good job, students!  Thank you generous donors!

Shown are Jorden Wyman, Morely Connor, Gaige Streeter and Maia Zawilinski.  

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE MORE!

Old Home Days

Friends of Mascoma is participating in the Grafton, Enfield, and Canaan Old Home Days parades this summer. Grab your Friends of Mascoma shirt and join in the fun! The parade dates are as follows:

• Grafton - July 8th
• Enfield - July 29th
• Canaan - August 5th

We have not heard about Old Home Days celebrations in Dorchester and Orange yet, if you have information for these towns and/or you wish to join us in any of the parades please email info@friendsofmascoma.org for more information. 

Co-op Food Stores Pennies for Change

The Co-op Food Stores have a powerful program called Pennies for Change that benefits many local organizations. This program is a charitable giving program that provides a way for customers to donate their change to our community partners by rounding up their order to the next full dollar amount.

Friends of Mascoma is excited to announce that we will be one of the recipients of Pennies for Change during the month of July. If you shop at the Co-op Food Stores please consider donating your change to help community organizations like us!

Thank You for Supporting NH Gives 2017!

Together we did it! During the official NH Gives 24-hour period of giving (6 pm on 6/6 until 6 pm on 6/7) 115 donors gave Friends of Mascoma a total of $12,620. An additional 11 donors helped bring our overall total to $16,435!

We thank you for your outpouring of support! Your donations to our scholarship fund and words of encouragement were truly amazing.

Guess what else? In addition to the generous donations, we won several prizes:

• $500 Overnight Power Hours for Most Money Raised between 9 pm and 6 am
• $500 Coffee Break Power Hours Most Donors between 6 am and 10 am
• $1,000 New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Power of Many - Most Raised from 6 pm to 6 pm

NH Gives was not only a success for us, it was a success for nonprofits throughout New Hampshire. During NH Gives 2017 there were 292 nonprofits that benefited from 3,163 donors who gave $310,171.39. What a day!

Thank you again for your tremendous support!

Holly, Kate, Carol, Liz, Matt, Beth, Andrew, Katie, and Theresa
The Friends of Mascoma Board of Directors

Summer Gardening Program 2017

Friends of Mascoma is sponsoring a summer garden program again this year! Our first session was June 28th and students filled the raised beds, planted seedlings, and watered the newly planted garden beds. Students had a great time and learned a lot during the first session. Please join us for future sessions!

Class of 2017 Scholarships

We attended senior awards night at Mascoma Valley Regional High School  on June 4th and there are some incredible students in the Class of 2017! We are pleased to announce we awarded 13 scholarships totaling $14,500. The scholarships and recipients are:

- Roberta Hines and Jerry Liebrand Healthcare Scholarship in Memory of Sadie Seamans awarded to Kaitlyn Seamans
- Roberta Hines and Jerry Liebrand Healthcare Scholarship in Memory of Velma Hines awarded to Emily Tevere
- Roberta Hines and Jerry Liebrand Science Scholarship in Memory of Verne Hines awarded to Courtney Grover
- GitHub Women in STEM Scholarship awarded to Emma Grodan
- GitHub Women in STEM Scholarship awarded to Haley Bissonnette
- Malformity Labs Women in STEM Scholarship awarded to Kylie Sumner
- Malformity Labs STEM Scholarship awarded to Garrett Williams
- Carolyn A. Cusick Trust Teaching Scholarship awarded to Justine Martin
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Political Science Scholarship awarded to Layla Meyveagaci
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Alicia Gonzalez
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Maia Zawilinski
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Evan Peck
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Amy Labrecque

These scholarships were made possible by our generous donors and supporters. Thank you for your support!

Friends Feeding Friends Expands to a New Larger Space in Canaan!

We are pleased to announce that our Friends Feeding Friends Food Initiative moved into a much bigger space in the MTD Property Building in Canaan thanks to the generosity of Matt and Rebecca Dow.  This space allows us to house a bigger Canaan Pantry space, distribution space for backup food, a prep area for fresh foods and eventually will be the FOM headquarters.  We couldn't have done this without the support of our communities' volunteers, who moved food and assembled new racks, tables, etc.  The Enfield Fire Department moved our refrigeration on a stormy night!  Our donors helped us raise money to cover the costs of the new pantry items we needed.  Thank you for all caring about sharing food with your neighbors. Pictured above is one of our wonderful donor partners, Willing Hands and we also partner with the NH Food Bank, Price Chopper Supermarkets Fresh Rescue, and Shaws Supermarket Fresh Rescue. Want to help? We can always use new volunteers!  Send an email to food@friendsofmascoma.org.

Friends Feeding Friends Pop-Up Dinner at 56 Main Street Bar & Grill

Chef Brent Battis of B&W Catering Company (Mascoma Class of 1998) was the featured chef at the Friends Feeding Friends Pop-Up Dinner at 56 Main Street Bar & Grill on May 1st. The reception and dinner featured local foods and libations including cider from Farnum Hill Cider and Eden Ice Cider with pairing talks from Steve Wood, pork from The Stewart Farm, Sunset Rock Farm cheese, Brabant Farms micro-basil, and much more. Special thanks to Dick Dumez and Kim Quirk, the Energy Emporium, Gen Y Creative, Blood's Catering & Party Rentals, Mascoma High School Radio - MIX 96.6, Captured Moments Photography by Bridget, Safflowers, all volunteers, donors and attendees.