SAUGUS — When Julie Cicolini and Jeannie Meredith stepped into leadership positions for the non-profit meal program Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus (HS2) at the beginning of this year, they had no way of knowing what 2020 held in store.
They found out in a hurry. And for their work with HS2, Cicolini and Meredith are the Essex Media Group’s 2020 Persons of the Year for Saugus.
The HS2 group was founded by Dennis Gould — who left late last year to serve on the town’s School Committee — to help offset food-insecure households in the Saugus community. With the help of donations and a small group of volunteers, the original mission of HS2 was to provide nutritious meals to students over weekends and school holidays during the school year.
Then the pandemic hit in March, bringing with it a massive wave of layoffs that affected hundreds of Saugus families.
When she first learned that the town’s public buildings would be shuttering their doors for the foreseeable future thanks to the global public health crisis, Cicolini, who is now the program’s president, told The Item in March that the non-profit immediately went to work to etch out a game plan.
“When the schools closed, we all looked at each other and … came up with a plan (alongside) the superintendent and Whitsons (Food Service) to figure out, with all this uncertainty, what we can do to help these students who need some type of food service,” she said.
Those first few weeks of quarantine in the spring yielded about $4,000 in donations for the group, which ultimately partnered with the town to offer Grab-and-Go meals during school closures.
“We were in uncharted territory as to how to feed these students (and) families,” Cicolini said.
Now, every Tuesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., volunteers stand outside the Veterans Elementary School on Hurd Avenue to hand out bags containing pre-made lunches, breakfasts, and snacks to Saugus students who would otherwise qualify for free or reduced-price meals. HS2 also offers a meal-kit delivery option on Fridays for families that aren’t able to make the designated pickup time.
Although not every student who qualifies participates, the program currently has a clientele base of 102 families — a number that has grown substantially as the pandemic stretches on.
“We have families right now, during the pandemic, who are taking advantage of the free foods being provided,” Meredith said, adding that the group’s finely-tuned inner network always works quickly to make sure every family is taken care of.
“Julie created a Facebook account for us, which is really great for outreach,” Meredith said. “Occasionally it will happen where there are families who didn’t sign up for deliveries but find themselves in a situation where they can’t get there for whatever reason. Julie immediately reaches out to the public via social media and then we get people who will step up to the plate and deliver food to those families.”
In order to maintain its mission, HS2 is made up of a number of partners and volunteers, and the board also looks to educate the community on the services it offers while maintaining donations to ensure the program’s sustainability.
School adjustment counselors help initially to identify and enroll students in need, while food service company Whitson’s purchases most of the food on the group’s behalf at discount pricing, which HS2 then reimburses with funds raised through philanthropic outreach.
HS2 board member Tammy Watts coordinates volunteers — who are mainly members of the faith community — to collect and distribute food bags to the school buildings, and filled bags are passed out to students using a method that ensures confidentiality.
“I’ve worked with several groups over the years, and this group is never too busy to do something,” Meredith said. “I think they rose to the challenge, met all the challenges, and always worked together to say ‘can we get this done? Let’s get this done.’”
Although HS2 is not currently accepting nonperishable food items, monetary donations can be sent directly to Salem Five Bank, C/O Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus, 855-5 Broadway, Saugus, MA, 01906.
Online donations can also be made at https://givebutter.com/HealthyStudentsHealthySaugus.
“(I want) to put a spotlight on HS2 to show the community the work that’s being done, and to show them how their efforts have helped and how we can sustain (the program) and continue to be successful,” Cicolini said.
Meredith added: “With this pandemic, there’s been a lot of negative and a lot of loss, but there have been a lot of families who have come even closer together, and I think that’s one thing I’ve learned — this community really pulls together and steps up for one another.”