Marla Wessland and friends Maren Chiu and Alison Mitchell, with their children, deliver Cuisinart pots and pans from the Star Market/Shaw’s promotion, to the Project SOUP food pantry. Over 100 people collected 12,000+ coupons which resulted in 120 items donated.

By Douglas Yu

The winter storm in New England hasn’t ended yet. In severe weather like this, cooking a fresh meal in brand new cookware is a blessing for many former homeless people who were just relocated to new apartments.

The Somerville Homeless Coalition (SHC) received 122 pots and pans this year, thanks to four months of shopping trips to Star Market by Marla Wessland, a long-time Somerville resident, and her friends. This year, they collected 12,320 Cuisinart Stamps in total, which earned them the pots and pans.

“This all started a year ago,” explained Wessland. “When my 8-year-old daughter, Sara, who likes to collect things, learned about the Rachael Ray Dinnerware promotion at Star Market and Shaw’s.”

Since her family didn’t need more dishes and bowls, Wessland decided to collected stamps and donate them. Through Facebook and word of mouth, over 50 people participated in this program, donating 122 pots and pans valued at $4,828.78 in total.

“All the donors were just so enthusiastic when I started organizing the program on Facebook. They just loved the idea of joining a good cause,” Wessland said. “This year, we are more organized, and we started collecting stamps at my daughter’s school, which is Kennedy School. I also made this my cover on Facebook for several months, which is a public photo, so everybody can see it, to promote the program.”

On January 22, just a few days before the historic blizzard swiped the Northeast, SHC expressed their gratitude for Wessland’s generosity to their clients through social media.

Executive Director of SHC, Mark Alston-Follansbee mentioned that Wessland’s program attracted donors from as far as Beverly, and he thinks that the more people act like Wessland, the fewer homeless people there will be in Somerville.

“Homelessness is worse now,” Alston-Follansbee said. “What happened in this country is, for many people, income has been flat for years, and expenses keep going up, and we know there are thousands of people in Somerville who don’t have enough to eat.”

During the past winter storm, SHC’s office was closed, and all the beds were filled, according to Alston-Follansbee. “We put two homeless people in our living room. We put them on our sofas, and they were grateful for having a place to stay during the storm,” he said. “We, at the same time, do a lot of communications with the community through social media and otherwise. We’ve also worked with the police for years, and the police will bring the homeless people to our shelters.”

Wessland told The Somerville Times that organizing this program wasn’t challenging at all. In fact, helping homeless people is “just a matter of spreading word.”

According to Wessland, “Somerville is such a wonderful community to live in, where people really pitch in and care for one another.”

Alston-Follansbee thinks that the fight against hunger and homelessness is summoning all the community members. “We realize that we all have some part in this. We all need to take some responsibility for people who are having a hard time,” he said.

Local politicians also make an effort to fight homelessness in Somerville. Earlier this month, Alderman at Large Jack Connolly announced through social media that he was proud to deliver a donation of $750 to SHC on behalf of himself.

As long as Star Market continues to offer this stamp-collecting program, Wessland hopes to continue this donation every year and to call upon more people to help give to the homeless community. “I don’t know what we can collect stamps for next year,” said Wessland. “But I know lots of people are already saying ‘just let me know next year, whatever it is, we are donating our stamps.’”