First Parish in Wayland’s Food Pantry Garden has been selected as a beneficiary of the new Stop & Shop “Bloomin’ 4 Good Program,” starting Feb. 26 and extending through the month of March.
The Stop & Shop Bloomin’ 4 Good Program, launched in February, is an easy way for shoppers to give back. The purchase of every $10.99 Bloomin’ 4 Good Bouquet sporting a red circle sticker supports a hunger organization local to the Stop & Shop in which it was purchased.
The First Parish Food Pantry Garden was selected as the March beneficiary by local store leadership at the Wayland Stop & Shop located at 101 Andrew Ave. The Garden project will receive a $1 donation for every Bloomin’ 4 Good Bouquet purchased at this Stop & Shop location through March. Every bouquet sold will feed 10 plus people in need.
“This wonderful new Stop & Shop initiative is so complementary to the purpose of our Food Pantry Garden,” said Molly Faulkner, who leads the Pantry Garden team. “With our plot, which is located in the Wayland Community Gardens, we raise food organically for distribution to needy families. Purchasing a Bloomin’ 4 Good Bouquet will help to fund items such as seeds and fencing. We are truly grateful for this support of our efforts.”
Since 2009, the Food Pantry Garden team has produced food and delivered it to three South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC )shelters and, monthly, to the Parmenter Food Pantry (now My Brother’s Table at Good Shepherd Parish, Wayland). First Parish volunteers plant and tend the garden throughout the spring, summer and early fall. Prior to the pandemic, the Pantry Garden team also picked up summer produce from the school gardens for shelters. In 2018, another First Parish team, underwritten by First Parish’s Lydia Maria Child Fund, added beehives to a field just south of the Community Gardens. The bees busily pollinate not just the Pantry Garden plot, but all flowering plants and trees. While the primary purpose of the beehives is to support the struggling honeybee population, the group donated four quarts of honey to shelters in the Fall of 2020.
For more information about the Stop & Shop Bloomin’ 4 Good Program, please visit stopandshop.bloomin4good.com. The First Parish in Wayland Food Pantry Garden team welcomes community volunteers who love gardening. For more information, contact Molly Faulkner.
