Partners with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

We are partnering with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth on a Personal Items Drive for our Spring Break boxes for school families. We are collecting the items on the notice below at the DHMC Main Building. You can find our donation boxes by Auditorium G-look for the posters.

If any MVRSD family would like to receive a box please get in touch with your school’s guidance counselor or email Cynthia Collea, our district’s social welfare agent and MVRHS food pantry at ccollea@mvrsd.org. by April 1. The first 60 families to register will receive a box of food and personal items. You can arrange pickup when you register.

Upper Valley Humane Society Partners with Friends Feeding Friends

Pictured here is Kay Hillinger from the Upper Valley Humane Society bringing their mobile pet food pantry to our Canaan site. Can’t forget about our pets and food insecurity, too! We so appreciate this added resource.

The UVHS does have a pet food pantry and we also keep pet food on hand. We love pet food donations!

MVRSD Winter Break Food Boxes

Lots of food support in our Mascoma Valley. Pictured is Carolyn Cusick, board member, pointing out 60 food and personal items boxes that were available to MVRSD families for Winter Break. The MVRHS pantry manager , Cynthia Collea spearheaded the project along with the district guidance department , Roger Hutchins and the Girls Volleyball team. There will be food boxes available for Spring Break also. Please get in touch with the school guidance department if you would like to be included if you have children in the MVRSD. We thank our partner, the New Hampshire Food Bank for helping us accomplish this.

The Snowball Fundraiser raised $400 for our Friends Feeding Friends program

Snowball report! In December Kaylee Felix hosted a fundraising dance at the Enfield Community Center for Indian River School students in December. All the proceeds ($400) went to our Friends Feeding Friends program . Our community youth have such community caring. Thank you also, Mom Beth Felix, board member.

News Flash! Co-Op Food Stores Pennies For Change program

The results are in! During the month of January, @Co-op Food Stores members and shoppers generously donated $4960.14 to us through this wonderful program. Thank you for “rounding it up” at check-out!

Scholarship Renewals - New in 2019

FOM has been asked about multi-year scholarships by many people and has come up with a way to make it happen! While it is not a traditional scholarship renewal program, our new program provides a way for past recipients to receive scholarship money from FOM for up to three additional years, while still allowing us to award a significant number of scholarships to the current graduating class.

FOM will leverage NH Gives as a way to help past scholarship recipients turn their one year scholarship into a multi-year scholarship. For more information please visit our scholarship renewal page on our website.

Empty Bowls - HUGE Success!

The past two months have flown by and we wanted to finally share an update on Empty Bowls in December. When we heard the plans that our district’s Art Teachers were making for Empty Bowls at Christmas in Canaan, we knew it was going to be an amazing event.

The planning, the prep work, and the community involvement was incredible. The night was even more impressive than we expected and we are truly grateful for the countless hours everyone poured into this event. At least 200 people attended the event and enjoyed hot meals in handcrafted pottery.

Jason, Cynthia, and Chris were excited to share that the total raise toward Friends Feeding Friends was $1,408.75! We are so thankful for their efforts. This is what the holiday season is all about, we love our Mascoma district! Thank you!

Enfield House of Pizza Fundraiser - Thank You!

The past two months have been a whirlwind of activity for FOM and we finally have a few minutes to share exciting news about our fundraiser at Enfield House of Pizza in December. Thanks to our many supporters, we raised $200 during our fundraiser. It was great to see so many of your faces at EHOP, we live in a great community.

A big thank you to Lori Bliss Hill and her wonderful employees for making this event a success.

Scholarship Deadline - April 1, 2019

Our scholarship deadline is quickly approaching and we need you to help us spread the word! We awarded $16,000 to the Class of 2018 and are looking forward to awarding scholarships to the Class of 2019 in June.

Please remind everyone you know about the upcoming deadline. The link to more information and the application can be found here.

Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship Renewable for Past Recipients

Friends of Mascoma Scholarships Are Now Renewable Up to Three Times For Past Recipients

Friends of Mascoma Foundation is pleased to announce that, starting in 2019, scholarships will be renewable for past recipients up to three times. To be eligible for renewal, recipients must be enrolled in a higher education program, and must also be a fundraising champion for Friends of Mascoma during New Hampshire Gives. Only funds raised during NH Gives are eligible for scholarship funding, any other methods of fundraising do not count towards eligibility for scholarship renewal. Past recipients of Friends of Mascoma scholarships who wish to renew their scholarship are required to email scholarships@friendsofmascoma.org to notify Friends of Mascoma of intent to renew and provide current contact information.

Individuals pursuing the renewable scholarship should also sign up to be a fundraising champion on the Friends of Mascoma NH Gives profile by May 1st, Friends of Mascoma will provide fundraising tips to all fundraising champions by May 15th. NH Gives takes place from 6 p.m. on June 11th, 2019, to 6 p.m. on June 12th, 2019. Please note that it is crucial that donations are during NH Gives, not before or after, otherwise the donations do not count toward NH Gives prizes. After NH Gives is over, scholarship amounts will be calculated. Fundraising champions will receive 50% of the amount they have raised as a scholarship. The remaining 50% of the funds will be used to deposited into Friends of Mascoma’s scholarship fund to ensure the longevity of the program and to cover overhead associated with the NH Gives fundraising campaign. Past recipients must also provide proof of enrollment and scholarship remittal information by August 1st.

The Food Coop Stores Will Feature Friends of Mascoma in January 2019!

We are honored to be one of the 5 charities to benefit from the Food Coop Stores “Pennies for Change” fundraiser the whole month of January 2019. All you have to do when shopping at any of their stores is to say “round it up” at check-out time and your pennies benefit the chosen charities that month. Thank you for your support in the past for this wonderful community outeach.

Cardigan Mountain School's "Pennies War" Benefits Friends of Mascoma Foundation

We received a wonderful donation of $1786.79 from the Cardigan Mountain School’s Pennies War Fundraiser. We really appreciate our partnership with them. Did you know that almost every Sunday a group of volunteer students and staff member come to our Canaan distribution site and help us behind the scenes? Pictured here is Carolyn Cusick, board member, and Corey Lawson, head of the History Department at Cardigan presenting the check. We thank you!

Lots of Food Support from Partner Organizations

Pictured below are Mascoma Valley Firefighters from Enfield , Grafton and Canaan who sponsored an annual Toy and Food Giveaway to the Mascoma Valley. We were happy to provide food boxes for 100 school families. Many organizations also sponsored food drives in December which we were the happy recipients to benefit the Friends Feeding Friends food insecurity program. Thank you to the Helping Paw Humane Society, Enfield Village Association, Realtors Luncheon, KDR Fitness, LaSalette of Enfield, the Upper Valley Humane Society , Kaylee Felix Snowball IRS Dance and all of the many anonymous donors.

100 Food Boxes are in that trailer!

Pictured Below

Eat Pizza to Raise Dough at Enfield House of Pizza

We are holding a fundraiser at Enfield House of Pizza on Sunday, December 14th. Order between 4 pm and 8 pm, present the following flyer, and 15% of your check will be donated to Friends of Mascoma! Thank you in advance for your support and for eating local.

Empty Bowls at Christmas in Canaan on December 14th

Friends of Mascoma is the beneficiary of Empty Bowls at Christmas in Canaan and we are extremely grateful. Empty Bowls connects the arts with food and community to bring awareness and aid to hunger in our community. At the event, receive a clay bowl and hot food for a donation of $5 or more! Donations will go to our Friends Feeding Friends program to fight hunger throughout the Mascoma community. Jason Jarvis, the Art Teacher at CES and EVS, has been spearheading this wonderful event.

We will be at this event and we invite you to join us by bringing a dish or attending to eat!

Click here for the form to sign up to bring a soup, stew or chili

Click here for the event flyer

November was a Very Busy Time for a Showing of Community Support for our Mascoma Valley Food Insecurity program, Friends Feeding Friends!

We were in awe and humbled by the many organizations and businesses that supported food drives to help lessen food insecurity in the Mascoma Valley. We gratefully acknowledge and thank the Enfield-Mascoma Lioness Club- Price Chopper’s Food Drive, Indian River Helping Hands, the Mascoma National Honor Society, the Mascoma Ecumenical Council, Nutrition on the Green, LLC, @Community Balanced Life, @Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Dartmouth Hitchcock Physical Therapy Department, @New Hampshire Food Bank (140 free turkeys), the Canaan Community Dinner and many individual community donors who just drop food off anonymously!

Enfield-Mascoma Lioness Club: @Price Chopper of Lebanon.

Some of our 140 turkeys from the New Hampshire Food Bank.

Bar Harbor Bank & Trust of Enfield.

Some of many personal care items from the Dartmouth Hitchcock Physical Therapy Department.

Cardigan Mountain School volunteer students putting together food for 80 boxes for the Indian River Helping Hands and the Mascoma National Honor Society to distribute to Mascoma school families

Nutrition on the Green, LLC of Lebanon did a snack donation for us to distribute in our schools. This is a great idea cause we struggle to keep up with the demand.

Food Drives and Donation Planning

Are you planning a Food Drive to benefit FOM Friends Feeding Friends?

Areas of greatest need:

• Single-serving snacks

• Canned fruit

• Dried fruit

• Jams & Jellies (not grape please, we have a lot of this)

• Hearty Soups

• Cranberry Sauce

• Stuffing Mixes

• Evaporated Milk

• Pumpkin Pie Filling

• Pie Crust

• Canned Corn

As the weather cools down, we are thankful that donations are beginning to heat up.

Friends of Mascoma Foundation (FOM) is currently in the process of supplying food for 30 Thanksgiving boxes for Indian River School and contributing to 50 Thanksgiving boxes assembled by the National Honor Society at Mascoma Valley Regional High School. Any needs beyond these boxes will be covered by the Mascoma Valley Ecumenical Council Thanksgiving Ingathering. FOM is acquiring the majority of the turkeys for the Thanksgiving Ingathering thanks to their partnership with the New Hampshire Food Bank and has facilitated the donation of 1800 lb. of squash and 450 lb. of potatoes from the Grafton County Department of Corrections Farm to the Ingathering.

As soon a those 3 waves of Thanksgiving drive-related items are transferred, Friends of Mascoma is going to immediately dive into assembling items for the 100 boxes to be distributed by Mascoma Valley Emergency Services (Enfield, Canaan, and Grafton) as part of their Christmas Toy Drive giveaway to families in need. This happens at the beginning of December.

Community Lutheran Church received seed funding from Thrivent Financial and quickly turned it into milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, baking mixes, frosting, and vegetable oil to kick of their Feed the Northeaster Challenge Food Drive. TDuring the month of October, they collected and delivered over 800 items to the Canaan Pantry and an additional $500 matching grant from Thrivent Northeast will be awarded to FOM soon. This $500 match from Thrivent will go a long way as Friends of Mascoma can purchase standard items through the NH Food Bank for about $0.10 per pound. $500 can turn into 5000 lb. of food for our community.

Enfield-Mascoma Lioness also completed a recent food drive and will be sharing some of the donations with Friends Feeding Friends and other local food pantries.

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Watch for news on upcoming Stuff-a-Bus and NHS Food Drive, BSA Troop 44 Scouting for Food Camp Out, Community Balanced Life, and Thanksgiving Ingathering efforts to collect food for our neighbors over the next month as we approach the holiday season.

Every donation is hugely appreciated and needed as FOM works to share resources throughout the Mascoma Valley. The ongoing food needs in our community remain critical.

Please share the news about these important efforts to combat food insecurity in the Mascoma Valley with those you know.

Annual Warm Winter Clothing & Coat Drive a Success

We are incredibly proud of the work Beth Felix, Kaylee Felix, and our many volunteers doing in our community!

Foodie, the van, loaded with donations and ready to go!

Friends of Mascoma Foundation is always happy to support our Mascoma Valley families! The Warm Winter Clothing and Coat Drive happens because of the generosity of our Mascoma residents who pay it forward. We are honored to have a board member like Beth Felix and her daughter, Kaylee Felix, who take on this project yearly together with a team of volunteers. Thanks to all of you who helped by donating and giving your time so this can happen. Spreading resources rather than discarding it is the way to go!

Kaylee, an eighth-grader at Indian River Middle School, is happy to see how much of an impact the event has had since it began.

For her, it’s all about hanging out and playing outside with her friends no matter the time of year.

“I feel like everyone should be able to go outside and have fun,” she said. “It’s important that everyone helps each other out to make sure everyone has what they need. It’s important to be kind to each other.” ~excerpted from the Valley News, Saturday, October 20, 2018

We are grateful again this year to Canaan, NH Fire and Emergency services for sharing the use of their gathering room with us. We look forward to seeing everyone next year.

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If you missed the giveaway and are in need of warm winter clothing, Friends of Mascoma shares items that do not find a home during our giveaway with the Canaan United Methodist Vestry for their Coats Plus program. Coats Plus also offers these items and many more, for Free to our community. Stop by and see what they have to offer.

Thanksgiving Ingathering & LISTEN Holiday Baskets

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Please help us spread the word regarding the Mascoma Valley Ecumenical Council Thanksgiving Ingathering food baskets and LISTEN holiday baskets to both donors and Mascoma families in need. The deadline to submit forms for the Thanksgiving Ingathering is Friday, November 9, 2018 and the deadline for the LISTEN holiday baskets is Thursday, November 15, 2018.

For your convenience we have converted the information to image files in this post. To download a PDF copy please visit our Friends Feeding Friends page.

SAU #62 Meet-and-Greet

We had a great meet-and-greet on October 3rd and thank everyone who took time to come out. It was a casual affair and attendees had the opportunity to speak with new SAU #62 members one-on-one. We are excited about the new and promoted members in our district:

• Amanda Isabelle, Interim Superintendent

• Craig Sutte, Technology Director

• Chris Besso, Special Education Director

• Harrison Little, EVS Principal

• Leah Wheelan, CES Principal

• Megan Jones, IRS Assistant Principal