Hamptons Community Outreach, which works to lift people out of poverty and reduce human suffering by meeting basic and critical needs, will hold its third annual fund-raiser on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. at 230 Elm in Southampton Village.
The organization describes it as a “love fest, a beautiful celebration of the compassionate community that makes our work possible.” Food, drinks, and live music will be part of the evening, and the Plain-T tea company will offer a special experience, said Marit Molin, the organization’s founder and executive director.
Hamptons Community Outreach has repaired and renovated 70 residences, installed four prefabricated houses, “and we are planning to build four new houses right now,” Ms. Molin, a trained clinical social worker, said last week. The group also delivers meals, produce, and other necessities to those living on the margins on the South Fork. Its food outreach program began during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when it delivered 6,500 cooked meals and 19,500 pounds of fresh produce and groceries to those in need.
The group continues to feed hundreds of families every week and distributes many hundreds more Stop and Shop gift cards, Ms. Molin said. The organization also provides college counseling, life mentoring, and holiday gifts and birthday parties, and distributes clothing and shoes throughout the year. Its Hamptons Art Camp, which Ms. Molin founded in 2018, has hosted more than 750 children, half of whom come from underserved communities and attend tuition free. It also works to meet urgent or unexpected needs such as vision, hearing, and other medical treatments, dental work, car repairs, utility bills, rent, and legal assistance.
Another task of the group is to raise awareness that poverty not only exists but is widespread in “the Hamptons,” Ms. Molin said. To that end, videos on Hamptons Community Outreach’s Instagram account have been viewed tens of thousands of times. “What some people don’t know is with the seasonality of work and the high cost of living in the Hamptons, people struggle to find a place to live in the off-season,” reads one accompanying message. “This is why we find people living in the woods,” one of whom is depicted being transported from a makeshift encampment amid a gathering snowstorm to a nearby motel for a hot shower, a meal, and a bed.
Ms. Molin has been featured in a number of articles in The New York Times about day laborers “living outdoors amid an inventory of large, mostly empty summer homes,” according to one.
“People are just shocked about the fact that there are homeless people in the Hamptons,” she told The Star.
Tickets to Saturday’s fund-raiser are $200, with sponsorship tiers that include two to six tickets also available. Ms. Molin will give a presentation on the work of Hamptons Community Outreach.
“A lot of people are out of town this time of year,” she said last week, “but we still manage to get a pretty good crowd. At this time of the year, it’s quiet and boring in the Hamptons, so it’s fun for people to go out and celebrate a good cause and see people.”
“For $200, people get a chance to change lives,” she said. “For $200, that will offer groceries for a week for a family in need. We’re asking everyone to attend so we can help our many struggling neighbors. It’s a great opportunity, just by attending a party, to change someone’s life.”
Those unable to attend can still contribute to the organization at hamptonscommunityoutreach.org.
