Article from ManchesterJournal.com
STRATTON MOUNTAIN — The Stratton Community Foundation continues to make big strides in its efforts to help low-income families in the area.
The foundation met its goal to raise $62,500 for the “Caring for You from Head-to-Toe Campaign” and was generously matched by Alterra Mountain Co., which owns Stratton Mountain Resort. Proceeds from the foundation’s golf outing in early September, as well as contributions from over 70 individuals and businesses, made the fundraising effort a success.
The Head-to-Toe campaign, just one of the undertakings of the foundation, is particularly aimed at providing clothing and footwear for children year round. Alterra matched Stratton Foundation’s $50,000 last year, as well.
The foundation keeps its finger on the pulse of the needs within the 18 communities surrounding Stratton Mountain that it serves. Tammy Mosher, executive director of the Stratton Foundation, specifically mentioned the close relationship with area schools in directing the nonprofit’s energies, and its “grassroots” origins as a reason Alterra chose the Stratton Foundation as its partner to help serve the community that its employees live in.
“The needs that we hear sometimes turn into trends. We wanted to do a toy drive, and half the kids started asking for winter boots instead. So we started Boots for Kids,” Mosher said, citing one example.
After several other organizations stopped providing jackets and winter gear for children in the area, the Stratton Foundation stepped in to fill that gap, and combined several of their smaller programs to become the Head-to-Toe Campaign.
While keeping kids warm is especially important as the winter months approach, Head-to-Toe’s aim is just that, providing for children in whatever they need. Prior to COVID-19, the foundation was funding mobile dental hygienists going into schools to help mitigate the extremely long waiting lists for appointments in the area; some families were traveling as far as New Jersey to be seen by dentists. Post-pandemic, the foundation is still putting together dentistry kits.
Dental care and boots aren’t the only footwear the foundation focuses on, either.
“Sneakers are a huge need among children of lower income,” Mosher said. “When we went to some schools, and we measured their feet, some were wearing a size 4 and their foot was a size 6. We had one sad situation where a girl was wearing a flip flop glued to the bottom of her sneaker to make it longer.”
Within Stratton Foundation’s footprint, the region can appear predominantly affluent. That is far from the reality of the situation, however. Using how many students qualify for free or reduced lunches at school as the metric to determine how many are “low-income” or “in poverty,” the statistics from Mosher might be shocking to some.
“It’s very different geographically … 80 percent of the kids and families at Currier Elementary School are living below the poverty line. Flood Brook up in Londonderry is close to 40 percent,” she said. “We rely on the schools and our community partners to help us identify who is in need.”
So, even though the foundation met its goal in the Head-to-Toe initiative this year, the work is far from over. Mosher and her team now turn their focus to their “Feed the Community” program, which is aimed at food insecurity in the region. The foundation is 39 percent of the way to its goal of raising $60,000 by Dec. 10, and has already received $7,000 from Kevin Duffy and Hillary LaForge, as well as another $5,000 from Andrew and Elizabeth Ward.
Food security is always at the forefront when it comes to serving low-income families, but rising costs and limited supply of fresh, affordable food in much of the region is exacerbating that need.
“The food pantries are seeing a 52 percent increase in the prices of their food,” Mosher said.
Other statistics from the Stratton Foundation website highlight the significance of the challenge. Three thousand children in Vermont are being raised by grandparents on a fixed income; 42 percent of Vermont children are being raised by a single parent.
Mosher also mentioned that much of the challenge that Feed the Community is taking on is keeping children fed when they’re outside the routine of school.
“During COVID and last summer, we recognized that a lot of kids and families depend on that free meal at school, both breakfast and lunch,” she said.
The foundation’s website also states that children will be home from school, unable to take advantage of those free meals, for more than 50 days over the winter when accounting for weekends and holiday breaks.
“I’m hearing more and more about families having to choose between food or driving a child to a medical appointment, or a father to Dartmouth for a cancer treatment,” Mosher said. “People are having to make really difficult choices.”
Those wishing to donate to the Feed the Community program can do so at classy.org/campaign/giving-tuesday-to-help-feed-the-community/c440699.
Mosher emphasized that, besides clothing and food, the foundation also focuses on early literacy and education programs and scholarships, as well as mental health programs for students. Anyone who cannot make a financial donation but wants to help can do so by donating products or volunteering their time, and can learn more on the website.