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Stop the Stigma 5K Celebrating 50 Years

What started 50 years ago as a fundraising walk-a-thon to support the initiatives of Protestant Social Services Bureau (the former name of Interfaith Social Services), will kick off its 50th iteration this year on April 27 in North Quincy. Our annual event has grown from a homegrown church-sponsored walk to a full-blown 5K race welcoming more than 800 walkers and runners annually.

In its early days, participants formed teams with their churches, and proceeds from the 10-mile walk benefitted all programs of the social service agency. As we grew and dropped religious affiliation, the walk was opened beyond houses of worship. In 2016, we decided to refocus the mission of the event to focus on stopping stigmas surrounding mental health and addiction while raising funds for our New Directions Counseling Center. Around the same time, we pivoted from the walk-a-thon model to a timed 5K race.

Mental health and addiction remain critical issues in our community and across the nation. According to recent statistics from the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year, with only 47.2% of them receiving the treatment they need. Addiction issues in Massachusetts, including opioid-related overdoses, remain a challenging public health crisis, hitting record numbers in 2023 according to a recent report from the state Department of Health.

New Directions is a Safety Net

Our New Directions Counseling Center seeks to address these challenging issues by serving anyone seeking counseling. The Center acts as a safety net for uninsured and underinsured members of the community by offering services on a sliding scale fee system. To further break down barriers to receiving treatment, new clients to the New Directions Counseling Center receive their first four sessions free of charge.

Over the past 10 years, the Stop the Stigma 5K has raised more than $500,000 to assist New Directions’ clients, allowing hundreds of individuals and families to get the mental health care they need. By participating in the 5K, thousands of local residents have chosen to take a stand against mental health stigmas and support those experiencing mental illness and addiction.

“We are so excited to celebrate this milestone year,” said Paula Daniels, Director of Development of Interfaith Social Services and Stop the Stigma 5K’s Race Director. “We hope to welcome a record number of participants, all coming together to support their loved ones who are suffering as well as raising awareness to the cause. There is no shame in having a mental illness. It is okay to ask for help.”

2024 Race Details

This year’s Stop the Stigma 5K will be held April 27 at the Kennedy Center in North Quincy. The 5K route winds through the Squantum neighborhood, with picturesque views of the Harbor and Boston’s skyline. All participants registering before March 29 will receive a race t-shirt. Registration is open now at StoptheStigma5k.org.

This year’s event will feature a food truck from Granite Links with coffee and light breakfast & lunch items for sale, as well as free bagels provided by Gold Medal Bakery & Bagel Boy. Polar Beverages will be donating water for race participants.

2024 Stop the Stigma Sponsors

Anniversary Level Sponsors:

• Arbella Insurance Foundation
• Wulfpac Charitable Funding

5K Level Sponsors:

• The Heritage Companies
• Summit Energy

Gold Level Sponsors:

• Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital – Milton
• Colonial Federal Savings Bank
• Keohane Funeral Home
• New England Medical Group
• South Shore Bank

Silver Level Sponsors:

• Abington Bank
• Bank of Canton
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
• the Brain Aneurysm Foundation
• Dedham Savings
• First Congregational Church UCC of Randolph
• FoxRock Properties
• IntelyCare
• Law Offices of William T. Kennedy, P.C.
• Lawson & Weitzen, LLP
• Massachusetts Convention Center Authority
• Point32Health
• SIGNET Electronic Systems
• South Shore Health
• United Healthcare

From our Executive Director, Rick Doane:

I hesitate to use the word crisis, but we are in the midst of a very challenging situation here at Interfaith Social Services.

This past year, Interfaith’s food pantry has seen a 23% increase in the number of clients reaching out for assistance from our food pantry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture just released a report outlining that this increase is not isolated to Interfaith’s food pantry. This surge is a nationwide issue. It seems like that would be reason enough to be asking for help, but there is another reason we are sending this email today.

Our Food Supply Has Been Cut in Half

We took a huge hit this past month when our food supply was cut in half. The distribution center that supplies food to all emergency food organizations in Eastern Massachusetts is having a staffing crisis. For the past month, they have had to cut the amount of food they distribute to all agencies. There is no scheduled end to this reduction in food.

Since we are now receiving half of the food as before, we have had to reduce the amount of food distributed to clients, while also having to purchase significantly more food from wholesale and retail distributors. We are providing food to 1,400+ households every month and spending thousands of dollars more each week than we had budgeted for.

We Need Your Help

We need your help. Like many families, the top items most sought after by our clients are the basics: eggs and milk.

We are hoping that you can supply milk and eggs for a local family each month by becoming a monthly donor.

Just $5 per month will make it possible for us to purchase a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs for a family. With $10 per month, you will supply two families with a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk, and so on. We hope that you will sponsor several households, but if you can only help one family each month YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE and we are grateful! Set up a monthly donation NOW.

Also, in recognition of the challenging situation, and to encourage more people to donate, a generous donor has agreed to match your donations up to $5,000!

DONATE NOW

Interfaith is committed to being the safety net for thousands of South Shore children and families in need. We are counting on our amazing community of supporters to help in this difficult time. On behalf of the thousands of people we serve, THANK YOU.

Hundreds of children and families braved the rainy weather last weekend to visit us and pick out no-cost Halloween costumes at our annual costume giveaway on October 21. We invited the children served by the food pantry to browse a costume shop set up in our basement. It was wall-to-wall full of brand-new costumes, masks, and accessories, all donated by YOU, our generous community members.

For local families having trouble putting food on the table, “extras” such as Halloween costumes can seem out of reach. Our seasonal initiatives, like the Halloween costume distribution and our upcoming Help for the Holidays gift program, help ease these costs for South Shore families in need and bring joy to children in difficult situations.

Generous individuals and businesses donated hundreds of new Halloween costumes through our Halloween Costume Drive. We’d like to thank the Have a Sammi Kinda Day Fund for donating more than 100 new costumes and Saint Joseph Parish of Quincy and Radius Financial Group in Norwell for running costume drives at their organizations. The Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation gave us a $1,000 grant that went toward purchasing costumes. And Stop & Shop donated hundreds of sugar pumpkins for children to take home.

Dozens of volunteers helped sort incoming donations, prepare for the event, and assisted clients during the costume distribution, including corporate volunteer groups from Arbella Insurance, CBERA, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

For more information about Interfaith’s holiday initiatives, please contact Seasonal Program Coordinator Natalie McMenamin at natalie@interfaithsocialservices.org.

Our annual Halloween Costume Drive kicks off today!

Costume Drive

How to Help

Costumes are needed in all sizes (this program serves ages 12 and under). However, in previous years we have needed more large and XL sized costumes for kids ages 9 -12.

Questions? Contact Natalie McMenamin (natalie@interfaithsocialservices.org or 617-773-6203 x26)

*Please note that costumes donated to this program should be new, but we are happy to accept donations of used costumes to our Bureau Drawer Thrift Shop where we sell them at a deep discount. All proceeds from the Shop go directly back to our programs.

Interfaith has received a $50,000 grant from the Boston Foundation’s Safety Net Grants program, which supports social service organizations meeting the essential needs of vulnerable communities and people in Greater Boston, with a priority on the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Lynn, Salem and Randolph.

“Randolph is one of the communities that utilizes our services the most,” said Interfaith’s Executive Director Rick Doane. “Last year our food pantry distributed more than 78,000 pounds of food to Randolph residents. This grant will allow us to serve the increasing number of people from Randolph, and greater Boston, in need of assistance. We are very grateful for the Boston Foundation’s investment in our community.”

For the past 75 years, Interfaith Social Services has been providing South Shore families and individuals in need with food, mental health counseling, homelessness prevention services and initiatives that bring joy to children.

“For decades, Interfaith Social Services has provided critically-needed food, rental assistance, mental health and other services to thousands of people in Quincy and the South Shore,” said Orlando Watkins, Vice President and Chief Program Officer at the Boston Foundation. “As a community-based, collaborative, volunteer-driven organization, they provide a platform for creating a more equitable, stronger community for all South Shore residents.”

Funds for this Safety Net grant come from the Boston Foundation’s Fund for Boston’s Future, an endowed pool of funds built over more than a century by generous contributors who want to help the Greater Boston community thrive. Each year, the Boston Foundation distributes more than $15 million in discretionary grants and other resources from the Fund, which are largely awarded through a competitive process open to nonprofits serving the Foundation’s catchment area, stewarded by the Foundation’s Program Department staff and approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors.