Justine O’Mara Limonius, a mother of two and member of the East Hampton School Board, has put out a call to the community to keep the new Little Free Food Pantry box at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and East Hampton Middle School stocked up with food items, as well as a similar box that will soon be set up at East Hampton High School.
“We will need everyone’s help to make these a success. With so many people passing them daily as they drop off kids, I hope they can also drop off some items,” said Ms. Limonius.
She had the idea, after leaving donations for the food pantry at the East Hampton Town Senior Center, to take the boxes to the schools as well. When she sought the backing of her colleagues on the board, they were unanimously supportive.
Food insecurity is not a new issue here, as evidenced by the very active food pantry organizations in East Hampton, Springs, Sag Harbor, Montauk, and elsewhere, but it often flies under the radar, with eye-popping real estate values and showy displays of wealth grabbing people’s attention and making news headlines. In the East Hampton School District, more than 40 percent of families qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program, a statistic high enough for the district to receive funding for students all across the district to be given free breakfasts and lunches.
When she and her daughters, Lily and Lucia, were filling the food pantry box at John Marshall Elementary recently, Ms. Limonius found it was a learning opportunity for them.
“My hope is that we can teach our kids compassion and kindness,” she said in an email. “. . . . As we filled the pantry up, I had to explain that there are many people here that can use some help. It led to a lengthy discussion about wealth and poverty that exists everywhere. They had a lot of feelings about this and were so happy to help others.”
Students in Andy Rigby’s technology classes at the high school are busy building the school’s upcoming pantry box.
Ms. Limonius encourages people to donate items like peanut butter, jelly, bread, crackers, soup, boxes of pasta and jars of tomato sauce, apple sauce, cereal, protein bars, and “individual things like cups of noodles where one only needs to add water.”
“Some people only have microwaves and hot plates,” she said.
She also noted that the school pantry boxes are open for all in the community who need food, not just families with children in the schools.
“The take here is that one person can help many,” she said.
Adam Fine, the district superintendent, is thrilled with the project. The boxes “allow community members to give to our most needy families and allow those families in need to take whatever they might need,” he said in an email. “These are difficult times for many of our families, and every little bit helps.”