Tag: volunteers

  • Four Nonprofits in Neighboring JP Awarded Funding for Food Justice

    Derrel “Slim” Weathers (second from left), host of Award ceremony and creator of Heal the Hood and members on Jan 22. Photo by Enid Eckstein.

    Shown above, Food Justice Hub, Center for Faith Art and Justice, First Baptist Church.

    Four Jamaica Plain nonprofit organizations were awarded $5,000 in total in January in an effort to help end food insecurity in the neighborhood. 

    Heal the Hood, the First Baptist Church’s Centre Food Hub, The South Street Tenant Task Force and The Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center for Food Pantry received a little more than $1,000 each to carry out their food justice efforts.

    The funding originated during the lengthy federal shutdown last October. At that time, representatives from 25 organizations that advocate for food and other social justice issues met to address concerns about the stability of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Jamaica Plain residents in need of federal food assistance.

    They distributed over 10,000 flyers featuring a QR code for Jamaica Plain residents to donate to food justice efforts. The advocates decided to split the donations among four food organizations in the neighborhood.

    The additional funds would help the Centre Food Hub’s work supporting more than 300 households. That includes food delivery, staff, and helping to cover the cost for refrigeration systems that keep produce and meat fresh, said the Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird, executive director of the church’s food hub.

    “Our philosophy has always been, if you need food and you ask us for food …we will give you food,” said Wiest-Laird in an interview.

    The church has had a long mission to feed those in need in the neighborhood. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it ran a delivery meal and grocery service for people experiencing food insecurity.

    After the pandemic, volunteers continued to serve cooked meals twice a week and opened a low-cost grocery store, which helps fund a food pantry stocked with non-perishable items and fresh produce.

    Derrel “Slim” Weathers, executive director and founder of Heal the Hood — which hosted last month’s award ceremony — said the funding will help pay staff and continue food justice efforts.

    Heal the Hood grows its own herbs, carrots, lettuce and other vegetables in its own backyard garden. It provides food to more than 100 families three times each week – on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – and has 70 volunteers and roughly 20 people on staff.

    The organization also gets donations from local businesses and community members through the People’s Free Store program. Volunteers from Feed the Hood deliver groceries to families.

    Weathers created the program in 2019 two years after being freed from incarceration. He said he hoped the program would “liberate” his community, rather than “going back into doing moral corrupting” in the neighborhood.

    “[Heal the Hood] is building a new ecosystem to make sure the mechanisms for … people of all races [so they] can have a chance to be respected and treated equally,” Weathers said in an interview.

    A third organization receiving aid is South Street Task Force, which was created in December 2023 and collaborates with the YMCA by providing trucks that deliver free food to residents every two weeks.

    About 40 families rely on these deliveries, officials said.

    Perla Suazo, the organization’s secretary, said that the need for such services has increased in the past few months, as many local families fear venturing outside and being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

    Sauzo said the organization plans to use the additional funding to purchase online grocery gift cards for those immigrant families.

    “Families need support right now because most of the families stopped working, they’re afraid to go outside [and] they don’t have food,” Suazo said. 

    The fourth awardee, Southern Jamaica Plain Community Health Center, said it will use its $1,000 to buy gift cards, reusable bags and help offset cost for transportation for families, said Evelyn Gallego, a senior program coordinator.

    The center operates twice a week through a bodega-style market open to patients of the center on Mondays and the whole community on Fridays.

    “We have to stay in community and connect with each other, not just… physically, mentally, but also …with your heart,” Gallego said.

  • Food Pantry sees one of its busiest days ever

    Volunteers at the Lexington Food Pantry served more than 600 people and 211 families Saturday, the third time the pantry served more than 200 families in the organization’s 35-year history.

    The surge followed a temporary pause in the federal food assistance program in early November that increased demand beyond the typical holiday spike, according to Usha Thakrar, co-coordinator and food pantry board member. “We are seeing an increase in weekly volume,” she said. “People are anxious.” 

    The pantry, run out of the basement of the Church of our Redeemer in Lexington, has operated most Saturdays since 1990, serving Lexington residents and workers without income verification. Volunteers distributed extra food on Saturday because the food bank will be closed the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

    While no turkeys were given out on Saturday, the pantry does try to give out more Thanksgiving themed items. Bags were often filled with pumpkins, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin pie.

    Susan Perullo, who has been volunteering for more than 20 years, said demand remained high even after federal food benefits resumed. “SNAP benefits only go so far,” she said. “You can only buy certain things. You can’t buy toiletries, shampoo and paper goods … so people come here for that as well.”

    The pantry receives donations from local businesses, including When Pigs Fly Breads, which donates about 24 loaves a week. The nonprofit also partners with Beantown Baby Diaper Bank, where families are able to receive donations in Lexington once a month, or in other locations across the Boston area.

    Despite Lexington’s median household income of more than $200,000  and a stubborn perception that everyone in Lexington is wealthy, organizers said need persists in many subsets of the population.

    Lexington resident James Adamson, a congregant at Temple Isaiah, was aware of the food pantry, but suggested that others in Lexington may not realize there’s a need for a food pantry in the community. “I would be surprised if you went to more affluent neighborhoods and asked people, ‘Do you go to the food pantry? Do you know one?’ I’d be surprised if they did,” Adamson said.

    Aviram Cohen has been volunteering at the pantry for more than a decade. He said the connection with neighbors is what brings him back every year. “It’s an obligation to be part of the community, serve the community, give back,” he said. “We need to be able to hug people, and this is one of the ways to hug people. To give them the feeling that we care about them and we will support them whenever they are in need.” 

    The pantry accepts food, financial contributions and volunteer applications on its website.

  • Wellesley Hills Church Pumpkin Patch: A colorful tradition of volunteers and community spirit

    The Wellesley Hills Congregational Church has hosted a New England-styled pumpkin harvest for more than two decades, a tradition featuring pimpled gourds in marbled green and sunshine gold, alongside cozy bunches of ribbed orange orbs – some tall, others stout, all plump and ready for purchase.

    The tradition continued last week in Wellesley, as more than 40 good-natured volunteers gathered to unload a truckload of future jack-o-lanterns, porch decorations and pumpkin pies.

    Afterward, Nancy Simons and Paul Bruchez stood on the church lawn, surveying the sea of dimpled orange.

    “It’s a multi-generational event,” said Bruchez, who has volunteered at the pumpkin patch since 2003. “I don’t think there’s anything else like this in Wellesley.” 

    “It’s a community event…that connects new people that come into the community whether they moved from Texas or they moved from China or they moved from Ghana,” said former Wellesley Selectman Jack Morgan, a veteran pumpkin patch volunteer and former deacon and moderator at the church.  

    He estimated that more than half of the church volunteers at the pumpkin patch during their 3 week-run.

    Several of the high school volunteers were originally just looking to complete required community service, but they fell in love with the festivities and kept coming back.

    Ally Shi was one of them. She’s been volunteering for three years. “I totally think that a bunch of high schoolers, when they first started …volunteering…thought ‘Oh I’m just gonna do this for school,’” Shi said. “But, like, as I kept doing it more and more and like giving back to the community, it actually felt really amazing, and made me really happy.” 

    For 22 years, the pumpkin patch has been a scenic backdrop for family photos and wedding shoots, a field day for excited toddlers, a time capsule for returning buyers, and a reliable source of charitable community bonding. 

    Pumpkin Patch backstory

    It all began with a youth pastors’ crazy idea, one that eventually gave rise to the moniker, “pumpkin church.” Today, the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church’s fundraiser is one of the most highly anticipated and loved events in town. 

    Laurie Otten was the first chairwoman. She visited the patch that inspired it all, the Carter Memorial Church in Needham, which gave her some idea of dos and don’ts. 

    She said unloading is the trickiest part. 

    The pumpkins used to be delivered loose in the belly of an 18-wheeler. No boxes, just hay and pumpkins stacked to the roof. 

    The adults couldn’t maneuver themselves to the top of the pile inside the trucks, so organizers deployed 12-year-old “pile monkeys” to send pumpkins down while offering an occasional avalanche warning. 

    The Hills Church used a good old-fashioned assembly line, running from inside the truck onto the lawn. Efficient, for sure, but the old way isn’t easy on today’s average body, particularly for those catching pumpkins from a 13-foot drop.

    Volunteers say the last person on the truck and the first person on the ground have the worst jobs. “I managed to catch one in a way that tore a little bit in my shoulder one year,” said Otten. “So, I don’t do that anymore.” 

    At one point, the team cleared an enormous pile, only to reveal a carton with about 100 more small pumpkins. “It was like so depressing,” Bruchez sighed. 

    Soon after, a little blonde girl lifted their spirits. “‘I’ll get in,’” Bruchez remembered her calling out. She was lowered into the carton and happily went to work, giving the group enough rest to finish the job with gusto.

    Bruchez also went to the Needham church to gather intel. “They had a huge group of 20-something men who were briskly unloading,” Bruchez said. “We did not have a large group of 20-something men.”

    But they did have a group of geeky engineers who used their brains instead of their backs. They developed a ramp system that allowed loose pumpkins to roll from the truck to the ground. 

    Today, most pumpkins arrive on pallets. The church rents a forklift and hires a driver to transfer the pallets to the loading areas. 

    For the event’s first 10-15 years, Otten said late delivery trucks and primitive cellphones led to frayed nerves. One year, a lost driver arrived after dark, forcing volunteers to buy lights at Home Depot so they could unload pumpkins. In possibly the worst case, a driver enroute to Wellesley completely abandoned his truck load of pumpkins. 

    “We had no way of communicating with the driver and they had no way of communicating with us,” Otten said. “It broke down somewhere. They found it sometime later … abandoned on the side of the road. I can imagine that must’ve been a very smelly truck.”

    Soon after, a new load of pumpkins arrived at the church.

    This year’s delivery arrived a day early, on Monday. Volunteers arrived in the late afternoon the next day and calmly unloaded the pumpkins with practiced hands. Cardboard boxes flanked the lawn until workers pushing wheel barrels rolled the pumpkins into their final position. 

    “You look out here today, you see very young people and people who are not so young, but young at heart, and everybody is out here working together,” said Kristen Toffer, co-chair of the event. “Somebody told me in the church, (the event is) … like having a barn raising, everybody in the community is coming out to raise a barn.” 

    Volunteers described the process as “organized chaos,” but it looked like a well-oiled machine to observers.

    A serious fundraiser

    These pumpkins’ stories began before they were harvested in New Mexico, before they were passed hand-to-hand along a chain of volunteers in Wellesley, and long before they were purchased for decorations, or other artisanal projects. The pumpkin patch story began with a handshake sealed by trust in 1974. 

    The first pumpkin fundraiser was a deal between Richard and Janice Hamby who ran a three-acre pumpkin patch and a local church. The Hamby’s would supply goods for the church’s fundraiser, and they would share the proceeds. A simple deal turned into a family-run business as the Hamby’s acquired more partners. Today, they partner with more than 1,000 organizations nationwide, delivering pumpkins on consignment.

    After Hurricane Hugo, the Hamby’s moved their operations to a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. In collaboration with the Navajo Nation, Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers grows 1,200 acres of pumpkins and employs over 700 Native Americans to run the operation and coordinate the harvest.

    Sixty percent of the funds raised by each organization is returned to Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers and dispersed to the Indigenous community. 

    The Hills Church pumpkin patch fundraiser is a shared experience that reaches beyond the Wellesley community. Each pumpkin connects a farmer to a family, and the money raised connects Wellesley to the world. 

    Though it is not widely known, the Hills Church pumpkin patch fundraiser supports various community service operations such as disaster relief groups and Family Promise Metrowest, a non-profit that provides education, shelter, and other types of support to families in need. 

    This year, proceeds will support the Wellesley Food Pantry and the Hills Church Youth Service Trip.  

    Pastor Zach Kerzee became the director of youth ministry and congregational engagement at the Hills Church in January. He said he was excited to participate in this quintessential Hills community event and organize the youth service trip. One of his responsibilities is to rebuild the youth service trip post-Covid.  

    He said the service trip and the community service opportunities allow young people to be a part of the world outside of their screens. “So much of kids’ lives are through their phones,” Kerzee said. “It’s important for kids to think outside of themselves. It’s important for kids to broaden their world view.” 

    Next spring, a group of 6-12 graders will visit Puerto Rico. Kerzee said the goal is not to indoctrinate or impose themselves on a community, but to learn, share life experiences, and do some good along the way. 

    No phones are allowed on the trip, a prohibition Kerzee described as “detox.” Participating in community events gets the kids to connect with real people, he said, preparing them to meaningfully engage in their cultural exchange. 

    The goal of the fundraiser is not oriented around the money raised, it’s just to sell out. And they usually do. Last year, the Hills Church raised $32,000 and donated $6,600 to the youth service trip and the food pantry. 

    “I believe we need positive things that we can do concretely,” said Morgan. “And working at the pumpkin patch is a concrete thing you can do.”

  • Play it Forward: Newton’s Artful Pianos make music for all

    Ninn Davis photographs Tom Page while he plays a painted piano, titled “Koi Notes,” painted by Raquel Fornassaro, located in Newton Centre. Photo by Miu Tung Rong

    A symphony of sound and color takes over the streets of Newton as the Artful Pianos installation returns for the summer.

    Seven hand-painted pianos are scattered throughout the town, transforming parks and other public spaces into art galleries and stages for spontaneous performances.

    “When you walk through the villages of Newton and you see these pianos out, there are all kinds of people playing them,” said Lisa Rucinski, program manager of the Newton Cultural Development Center, which organizes Artful Pianos. Coming from a musical family, Rucinski said she understands that music can bring people together, and she takes pride in maintaining this Newton tradition. 

    The seven pianos, each painted by a different artist and given a name, are all across town through Labor Day:

    • “Embrace Everything,” by Ashley Jin, is along the Upper Falls Greenway.
    • “The Harvest,” by Columba Kenner, sits outside the Auburndale Library.
    • “In Full Bloom,” by Jenn Dua, is in Farlow Park.
    • “Somebody Come & Play,” by DaNice Marshall, is in Austin Street Plaza. 
    • “Find Zen Within,” by Gary “Zen” Chen, sits outside City Hall.
    • “Koi Notes,” by Raquel Fornasaro, livens up Newton Centre Green.
    • “Forget-Me-Not,” by Michael Talbot in Officer English Park, Newton Highlands. 

    Now in its eighth year, the Artful Pianos 2025 installation invites residents to sit down, play and take part in interactive art.

    Luca Dalzell and Ethan Lan play a painted piano, titled “Koi Notes” by Raquel Fornasaro, located in Newton Centre, while a passerby stops to listen. Photo by Miu Tung Rong

    But these pianos aren’t just for music lovers or aspiring performers.

    “People who give their pianos away for this project love to see their old pianos put to use,” Rucinski said. “Meeting the artists, seeing the focus, painstaking detail, and how much they love and get attached to their pianos–it’s just a win-win.” 

    Raquel Fornasaro, a longtime Newton resident and artist, painted the only grand piano in this year’s collection–the rest are uprights. Her piano, titled “Koi Notes,” is adorned with lily pads and koi fish, paying tribute to Crystal Lake, a picturesque 33-acre natural pond in the heart of Newton.

    Fornasaro said her vision was to bring “calmness to the busyness” of Newton Centre with her serene depiction of the lake near her house. Crystal Lake, she said, is “the place where my kids usually go whenever it gets warm. For me, it [has] extra memories of having young kids there.”

    The process of creating the piano installation begins months in advance with help from a team of movers, artists and volunteers.

    It begins with donors looking to part with their old pianos. Greg Livingston, who tunes all of the pianos, evaluates the instruments before they are selected to be in the exhibit.  

    In Farlow Park, Michael Lonzana plays a painted piano titled “In Full Bloom,” painted by Jenn Duan. Photo by Anny Zheng Wu

    Once enough pianos are identified, Griffin Piano Moving transports them to the Newton Bath House at Crystal Lake, a makeshift art studio where the painters work.

    Piano Pals, a group of local volunteers, care for the pianos all summer. They monitor the weather and rush in with tarps whenever rain threatens. Every morning, volunteers like Garrett Van Siclen head to their designated locations to unveil the pianos and return every evening to protect them from the morning dew.

    “If they aren’t getting wrapped and they aren’t being protected from the moisture of the rain, they’re quickly not going to be able to be played anymore,” Van Siclen said. 

    Van Siclen said he enjoys hearing melodies drift through Newton’s neighborhoods–whether it’s a child playing his first notes, an artist bringing her vision to life, or people pausing from their commutes home to listen.

    Van Siclen has witnessed the magic this installation has brought to Newton over the past three summers.

    “Last year,” he said, “there was a couple, and they would come up here every night and play the piano.”