Student Starts Food Pantry, Runs Charity Drives: Annapolis Local Hero

ANNAPOLIS, MD — When times are tough, heroes emerge. We all know someone who's making a difference right now as we live through unprecedented and changing times.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize these heroes making a difference in their communities. We’re working to let all your neighbors know about these outstanding people and their stories.

This submission comes from Diana Love who nominated Gemma Love of Annapolis.

How do you know the local hero?

Work with her at Whole Lotta Love

What does the local hero do?

Gemma is a sophomore at Annapolis HS who brings together students to help other students. She helped start a very successful Pop Up Pantry that helped thousands of families during the pandemic. She founded an Angel Tree and has helped 275 children each year for the past three years to get Christmas presents, a holiday meal, and groceries. She organized gift, band-aid, and underwear drives for Children's National, Annapolis cluster students, and others. This year she started an organization "Whole Lotta Love" with a fiscal sponsor, so she could raise money to do even more. Her first effort this year was to fund school supplies and books for the Pascal Sherman Indian School in Omak, Washington.

Why do you believe the local hero should be recognized or honored?

Gemma is a thinker and a doer. She sees a problem, such as she did when the pandemic lockdown began. A fellow student at her school lost her father as one of the first victims of COVID in Annapolis. Her mother had a newborn baby and the family had no income. Above her lived another family with a very sick father and son, who had no food and were suffering horrifically from COVID with no medicine, beds or bedding. Gemma set to work to find out the contingencies, search for answers, and then engaged her neighbors and friends to find solutions. That grew into the West Annapolis Pop Up Pantry, a massive community effort that was much more than a food drive. Gemma helped organize trucks, donations, drop offs, calling families, and coordinating food distribution events. Later, Gemma saw that many of the families weren't able to get on giving lists at the Salvation Army or St. Mary's, so she helped grow an Angel Tree program where she works with schools to identify children in need, then she pairs them with an Angel who sponsor 1 wish and 1 need. What makes Gemma so unique is her total lack of judgement, her empathy and care, and her willingness as a teenager to put herself on the line to help others.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the local hero?

Gemma is all heart, and all brain. She truly cares about the people she helps, without judgement and with true empathy and compassion. Gemma has stated that some of the best days of her life were those spent working in the trenches, talking to people who she was helping and getting to know them better. Gemma is friends with people from every walk of life and she truly strives to create a world around her where everyone is invited to the table, everyone gets to be in the conversation, and everyone can get together to make good things happen.

Thank you for all you do, Gemma Love!

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Know someone making a difference in town?

Nominate them here.