SWAMPSCOTT — This weekend, a steady stream of shoppers were met at Stop & Shop by a group of Swampscott students, braving the cold and greeting them as they entered the store, asking them to consider picking up an extra item for a neighbor in need.
By mid-morning, donations had started to build. Bags of groceries were set aside in the students’ carts, waiting to be delivered to the Anchor Food Pantry.
The effort brought together students from eighth through 12th grade, some participating in the National or Junior National Honor Society, but some simply showing up because they wanted to help.
“It’s open to everyone,” said Matt Moran, an eighth-grade math teacher at Swampscott Middle School who organizes the efforts. “We have a lot of students who exceed their service requirements, and they just keep doing it because they love to help and they love serving.”
The food drive is one piece of a broader network of service opportunities Moran coordinates throughout the year, connecting students with local organizations like Anchor and My Brother’s Table in Lynn.
Moran is the advisor for the Junior National Honors Society, but the group that he calls “Student Leaders” has an email list of over 100 students across middle and high school. Each month, Moran sends out a list of service opportunities — and those spots fill up fast, he said. Small groups of students help out at local events like a recent inclusive Easter Egg Hunt. Each month they head to Anchor and unload and stock deliveries from the Greater Boston Food Bank. It’s work that Moran said often leaves a lasting impression.
“It’s such an eye-opening experience for our students to realize that there are people in our own community who are struggling with food insecurity,” Moran said. “That monthly delivery might only last two weeks or three weeks … and so it really depends on these supplemental resources to keep them and our people in our community who need help going for the month.”
At Stop & Shop, students rotated through two-hour shifts, transporting their haul to the food pantry after collecting carts full of pasta, beans, canned goods, miscellaneous food items, and household products. While Moran helps coordinate logistics, he said much of the work is driven by the students themselves.
“A lot of these drives are routine now,” he said. “The students know what to do. They know the drill. They really run the show.”
For many students, that sense of ownership and the impact behind it is what keeps them coming back.
“I think the amount of people willing to help has been really inspiring,” said Easter Cunningham, a senior at Swampscott High School who has been involved in the group’s volunteer work for several years. “Even people who don’t need the hours, they still show up. And the people shopping — they’re willing to take time out of their day to help too.”
Cunningham is part of that regular group that sorts monthly deliveries at Anchor Food Pantry. “I usually am sorting hygiene products and things, which before I didn’t even really consider,” she said. Anchor provides a range of household products from toothpaste to diapers to cleaning products — items not covered under SNAP benefits. “When you think of a food pantry, you think of food … I guess I never thought of it, but it feels really obvious,” she said.
With plans to attend college and study to become an art teacher, Cunningham said that the exposure to serving her community she’s had in Swampscott will likely continue well into her future. After moving to Swampscott in seventh grade, shortly before the pandemic started, she said this service group really helped her find her footing in the community.
“It’s giving students opportunities to go out of their way and help people,” she said. “It’s really inspiring to me.”
Other student volunteers are following in Cunningham’s footsteps and starting their service early, like eighth grader Sang Tong, who said that participating in these volunteer opportunities has changed his perspective.
“I like going to My Brother’s Table,” Tong said. “It’s life changing. You can see how people are doing, and you realize not everything’s perfect. It makes you want to help.”
Fellow eighth grader Johan Standal said that even with a busy schedule filled with school and sports, he feels the importance and the value of that volunteer work.
“I’m prioritizing this over everything else,” Standal said. “I just want to help people and I feel like I’m making a difference.”
Tong and Standal said they both plan to continue volunteering with Moran’s group, even as they move beyond middle school.
“Helping and making a difference, making the community a better place, is really nice,” Tong said.
Moran said that sentiment is exactly the kind of mindset he hopes to foster.
“I’m just so proud of our students,” he said. “They’re not just showing up once to check a box. They’re coming back again and again because they see the impact they’re having.”
