Island Food Equity Network
Since 2016, IGI has coordinated the Island Food Equity Network, bringing together approximately 25 organizations across Martha's Vineyard who share a commitment to making sure everyone in our community has enough to eat.
Members span the full spectrum of island life: farms, schools, health care providers, Councils on Aging, social service agencies, faith-based groups, and more.
We meet quarterly to share information, identify gaps, and develop coordinated responses to our community's food access challenges. This has shaped our work at IGI in profound ways.
For example, Network conversations helped us understand that even though the whole, unprocessed produce we were delivering to islanders through our Gleaning program was appreciated, some people who didn’t have adequate mobility or kitchen facilities needed prepared foods. And our prepared meals program was born.
Similar discussions made clear the need for out-of-school meals and snacks for kids, which gave rise to both our Community Lunch program and the Boys and Girls Club food access programs.
When the Island Food Pantry merged with IGI in 2020, that too grew out of the connections that had formed within the Network.
Over time, these meetings have built something harder to measure but just as important: the trust that allows organizations to step forward for each other, share resources, and collaborate for powerful actions towards shared goals.