The Martha s Vineyard Times
IGI prepares for upcoming growing season
Food Pantry in the works at P.A. Club; Thimble Farm prepares to maximize food production and minimize impact on soil.
Lynne Whiting, board president, and Tim Connelly, field manager, clean harvested butternut squash.
Island Grown to Go frozen soup.
The IGI Mobile Market delivers fresh produce directly to Islanders.
As the growing season approaches, Island Grown Initiative (IGI) is working on a number of projects to maximize production and access to fresh, healthy foods for the Vineyard. Laura Seguin, the development and communications coordinator for IGI, told The Times that now that IGI has merged with the Island Food Pantry and is moving the pantry location to the Portuguese-American Club in Oak Bluffs, food professionals at Thimble Farm are planning on ways to fill that space with locally grown produce.
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Itâs time to apply for scholarships
The Marthaâs Vineyard Community Foundation, formerly the Permanent Endowment of Marthaâs Vineyard, announced that applications for 2021 scholarships are now open for Island students. For the past 30 years, this organization has granted more than 1,600 scholarships for students looking to attend a college or university, and aided in supporting students already in postgraduate education or mariners pursuing their captainâs license.Â
With a multitude of different scholarship options available, students are advised to apply for whichever suits their needs best. While they can apply for as many as they want, students will most likely only be awarded one scholarship.Â
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Aquinnah: Leveling the Playing Field Kyra Steck
The snow is coming down fast and heavy. It is a wet snow with large flakes, there is wind too, as there frequently is here. It feels like a true winter when it snows. Living here I’ve learned to mark the winter passing in ways other than snowfall, as it doesn’t happen that regularly. The ways I mark are usually events: Berta and Vern’s Christmas party, people jumping in the ocean on New Year’s Day, the Chilmark School fundraiser/concert, the mass Exodus of February break, the M.V. Film Festival. Since last March most of those events have been cancelled. So now, I look out my window and watch the light change, a little more allotted every day, and today I see the snow, still falling as if it will never stop.
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Fishermenâs Preservation, ambassador partnership get grants
Marthaâs Vineyard Foundation awards $25,000 and $13,367 to benefit programs.
The Marthaâs Vineyard Community Foundation, formerly known as the Permanent Endowment for Marthaâs Vineyard, has awarded $25,000 to the Marthaâs Vineyard Fishermenâs Preservation Trust to re-establish a commercially viable wholesale fish market in Menemsha, according to a press release.Â
âThis year has highlighted the need to be flexible and nimble in responding to emerging needs,â said Anne Williamson, board chair of MVCF, said in a press release. âClearly, maintaining a viable fishing industry in Menemsha speaks both to the history of that iconic fishing village as well as its future. If we want to maintain a robust fishing industry based out of our harbors, then itâs critical to support a wholesale outlet for their catch.â
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Marthaâs Vineyard Community Foundation
COVID-19 Relief Utility Assistance
M.V. Center for Living is providing COVID-19 relief assistance for household utilities. â Isabel Gitten
Marthaâs Vineyard Center for Living will administer the funding that is now available to assist Island households experiencing severe economic hardship due to COVID-19 with heat and electric utility payments. For information and an application, contact one of the following:
 Edgartown Council on Aging â 508-627-4368
 Oak Bluffs Council on Aging â 508-693-4509
 Tisbury Council on Aging â 508-696-4205
 Up Island Council on Aging â 508-693-2896
 Dukes County Social Services â 508-696-3844