The Friends of Mascoma Foundation is lucky to have a rich and diverse list of community partners. Read on to learn about some of the agencies and local organizations and institutions that FOM partners with in the normal course of our work.
The Friends of Mascoma Foundation and Cardigan Mountain School have forged a strong community partnership. Pre-COVID, on most Sundays student volunteers travel to our Canaan site with a staff member to help with restocking and unpacking the Canaan pantry and distribution site. CMS has also tried to eliminate food waste by making frozen dinners for us to distribute in our pantries.
The Friends of Mascoma is proud to partner with the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society. We are a proud recipient of their Pennies for Change Program and their HCCF Community Project Grants. With locations in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society is a fabulous food co-op owned by more than 20,000 families, and one of the oldest and most successful co-ops in the United States. Anyone can shop, member or not. We employ close to 400 people and have nearly 300 local suppliers.
Serving the good folks of the Upper Valley since 1936!
Their vision is a well-nourished community cultivated through cooperation.
The mission of the Couch Family Foundation is to be a catalyst for change in the lives of children and their families by creating quality and equitable opportunities to help them learn, thrive, and lead healthy, fulfilling lives.
The Couch Family Foundation partners with organizations serving the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire and Vermont. We support people and programs working to improve children’s health and well-being, early learning and development, family resiliency, and community vibrancy. In 2021, the Couch Family Foundation awarded the Friends of Mascoma Foundation $10,000 via their Community Grants program.
The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is New Hampshire’s statewide community foundation, founded in 1962 by and for the people of New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has been a log time supporter of our work. In 2020 the Friends of Mascoma received a three year commitment of $10,000 each year from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
The mission of the New Hampshire Food Bank is to feed hungry people by soliciting and effectively distributing grocery products and perishable foods, and offering innovative programs through a statewide network of approved agencies; by advocating for systemic change; and by educating the public about the nature of, and solutions to, problems of hunger in New Hampshire. The Friends of Mascoma Foundation visits the NH Food Bank weekly.
NH Gives – an initiative of the NH Center for Nonprofits - is a powerful, statewide 24-hour online fundraising event that is designed to build community, connect donors to local nonprofits and generate excitement about the nonprofit sector.
NH Gives is a great way to boost your organization’s fundraising efforts. It provides eligible nonprofits the opportunity to reach potential new donors and provides the type of visibility that only a state-wide effort of this type can generate. The Friends of Mascoma Foundation has been participating in NH Gives since 2016.
Tri County Community Action Program provides commodities to the Friends of Mascoma Foundation every month. In 2019 we received 10,472 pounds of perishable and shelf-stable food items.
Monthly support from the Upper Valley Humane Society allows FOM to provide dog and cat food on site at both of our locations.
Willing Hands’ mission is to recover food in order to reduce waste, improve health, and provide reliable access to nutritious food for our neighbors in need. Willing Hands distributes free, wholesome food to our neighbors in need. They pick up donated food, primarily fruits, and vegetables, that might otherwise go to waste. They deliver this food to local human service organizations such as the Friends of Mascoma Foundation weekly and collaborate with them to provide nutritional education.
Willing Hands is a non-profit, charitable organization operating throughout the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire. Learn more about their work.
FOM is pleased to partner with the Saul O. Sidore Memorial Foundation. The Foundation makes grants only to charitable non-profit organizations or to educational, cultural, or governmental institutions.
A first-generation American, Sidore was born in New York City in 1907. After losing his job during the Great Depression, Sidore and his future wife May Blum joined her parents in founding the Juvenile Knitting Mills. The family’s enterprises moved to New Hampshire in 1940, and by 1955 Sidore was president of Brookshire Mills and Pandora Industries of Manchester.
Sidore’s business practices reflected his ethical principles and his interest in providing security for his employees. He pioneered a profit-sharing plan, instituted a pension plan, founded a scholarship loan fund to help his employees send their children to college, and he was the first employer in New Hampshire to hire an industrial psychologist and institute insured hospitalization benefits for employees. Sidore, who encouraged employees of all levels to participate in business decisions, created a joint committee of executives and employees to discuss their issues, and held quarterly meetings with all employees to discuss the company and its future.