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Why Philanthropy Matters
Stop & Shop Renews Support for Meals-on-Wheels — for the Second Year in a Row
On Cape Cod and the Islands, a home-delivered meal costs 29% more than the national average and the highest in the country. At the same time, federal support for programs like Meals-on-Wheels is shrinking, and new restrictions on SNAP benefits are expected to push tens of thousands of older Massachusetts residents toward greater food insecurity. For ESCCI, these pressures are not abstract. In our most recent consumer survey, fully 50% of Meals-on-Wheels recipients said that without the meals, they wouldn’t have enough to eat — up from 31% just one year ago.
Against that backdrop, we are proud to announce that the Stop & Shop Family Foundation has renewed its support of ESCCI’s Senior Nutrition Program with a second consecutive gift of $50,000.
The timing could not be more meaningful. In the current fiscal year, federal and state funding for our Senior Nutrition Programs is projected to decrease by at least $50,000. Stop & Shop’s gift will compensate for that loss dollar for dollar — and, together with our other philanthropic partners, we expect to close the funding gap for this program entirely.
“Meals on Wheels provides vital support throughout our community, delivering not only nutritious meals but also meaningful connections to older adults who rely on these services,” said Andrea Nickerson, Regional Vice President of Stop & Shop and a lifelong Cape Cod resident. “Stop & Shop is proud to support ESCCI and its dedicated team as they help ensure our neighbors can age with dignity, maintain their health, and remain connected to their communities.”
“When ESCCI launched its development program in 2022, we did so because we understood that the needs uncovered by the pandemic were not going away — and that the federal funding that had helped us respond to them would,” said Maryanne Ryan, ESCCI’s President and CEO. “The Stop & Shop Family Foundation has been an extraordinary partner. Their investment makes it possible for us to deliver more than 240,000 meals a year to older adults across Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket Counties and to do it reliably, regardless of what happens in Washington.”
ESCCI’s Senior Nutrition Program is also supported by generous grants from The Nantucket Fund, the Lyndon Paul Lorusso Charitable Foundation, Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, Nourish Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation, and the Gratis Foundation.
Only 1% of philanthropic giving in the United States supports older adult causes, in part because many donors assume that federally mandated programs are fully funded by the government. They are not. Private philanthropy is not a supplement to our work. For a growing number of older adults on Cape Cod and the Islands, it is what makes the difference between a meal and going without.
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