April 20, 2023 By Interfaith Social Services
Interfaith Social Services recently elected new officers and voted in new board members to their Board of Directors. Board member Jay Marvin, of Hingham, was elected president for a two-year term, ending in 2024.
Interfaith Social Services operates one of Greater Boston’s largest emergency food pantries, a mental health counseling center, Thrift Shop and homelessness prevention program. Since 1947, Interfaith Social Services has been a safety net for thousands of children and families from the South Shore who are struggling to make ends meet.
New president Jay Marvin is retired after working as Group Vice President of Global Transformation at Sodexo and has partnered with Interfaith as a volunteer and board member since 2014. Marvin was the Cross Divisional VP of Growth and Marketing in the US for many years previous to his global role. He traveled and worked in many countries but spent a considerable amount of time in France. Jay also served on the board of Sodexo’s Stop Hunger organization.
“Volunteering at Interfaith provided me with an understanding of how people used our services and their appreciation of us,” said Marvin. “We were there when their needs were real.”
Prior to joining Interfaith’s board, Marvin volunteered in a variety of capacities within the organization. He volunteered with Interfaith’s food rescue program, collecting thousands of pounds of food each day from area supermarkets, and served in Interfaith’s food pantry distributing food to clients. The experience gave Marvin a comprehensive perspective of Interfaith’s operations.
“Working in the food pantry gave me a glimpse at the diversity of our customer base and the dynamics of their different needs,” said Marvin. “I believe that we all need help at certain times in our lives, some a lot more than others. There should be places where people can go to get the help they need and Interfaith Social Services is such a place.”
During his term, Marvin hopes to make progress on long-range planning with a focus on funding and maintaining the effectiveness of the organization’s strategic plan. One of his main goals is to ensure that Interfaith’s programs continue to meet the changing needs and desires of clients.
Interfaith’s board has also voted in three new members for 2023: Bill Blackmer, Roberta Ferguson-Gregg, and Maddy Gabor.
Blackmer, of Weymouth, is a Senior Manager at SunLife. He found Interfaith years ago and appreciates the opportunity to give back.
Ferguson-Gregg, of Weymouth, is recently retired from a 47-year career at Stop and Shop. As a long-time volunteer with Interfaith’s food pantry and Help for the Holidays program, she turned her vocation of selling food into an avocation of providing food to the food insecure.
Gabor, of Quincy, is the co-founder and CEO of this.us.now., a professional education and organizational development company that helps individuals, businesses and nonprofits work with better information and more joy. She joins the board after regularly volunteering in the food pantry for several years.
Interfaith Social Services invites members of the public interested in joining the Board of Directors or becoming a regular volunteer to email info@interfaithsocialservices.org or 617-773-6203 ext. 17.