Announcements

Written by Donor

Recently, I spoke with two delightful women who have been helped through our Heart to Heart program. Their enthusiastic words certainly confirm the relevance of our mission!

Bridgette heard of Heart to Heart from a friend who said, “I want to take you to a food pantry where you will feel the love!” On her first visit, she said she immediately felt the warmth and love from the most wonderful volunteers and the smell of hot coffee and doughnuts. “Food for my soul,” she said.

Then, she met dear Miss Kitty, sitting at the desk and being “everyone’s mama.” Bridgette was shown all the literature on community resources and given coupons galore, much to her delight. She has five kids and has always been a huge collector of coupons. There wasn’t a pause before Bridgette bubbled over with her crockpot experience.

A Girl Scout delivered brand new crockpots to our food pantry, and Bridgette was given one with a recipe and all the ingredients needed for that meal. She said, “Where else can one pick out their own groceries and choose meat from the freezer? Where else is one shown that kind of love and respect?”

The following words are from Kathy:

Something amazing happens every time one walks through the door of Heart to Heart. It begins with the feeling of love and acceptance, perhaps a prayer, a hug. At Easter, there was candy for kids who would otherwise not have any; for Mother’s Day, a small plant. One Christmas – when I knew our kids would have nothing – Heart to Heart “adopted” us and surprised us with wrapped gifts!

It’s hard to put aside one’s pride and walk into a food pantry, but each time I feel loved and respected by all the kind and helpful volunteers. It truly changes your life when you leave home with hungry kids and an empty refrigerator; and you get to fill up your cart with staples, meats, fresh produce, and toiletries. I can assure you, if you are sad going in, you are smiling when you leave!

When you support Heart to Heart from October 1 through December 31, your gift will be doubled by an anonymous donor. Click below to make a contribution online.

Daily Discussions

Most mornings will begin with a discussion between small groups of volunteers. There will be a specific subject-matter for each day and you should sign up to attend only those discussions with which you are currently involved or have an interest.  To respect everyone’s time and energy, these will be limited to one hour and focused on the topic assigned.

You are encouraged to bring your feedback, suggestions, and notes to keep these discussions brief and focused. Some items to reflect on might be:

• Do I understand the process completely and know why certain things are done?
• What works well regarding this process? What’s your favorite part?
• What needs work and what suggestions do I have to improve this process?
• What am I willing to do to facilitate the implementation of these changes?

These discussions have been scheduled specifically to allow time to hear from the dedicated volunteers that keep Heart to Heart running. Your knowledge and input are necessary during this transition and in planning for the future. Please keep in mind that these are discussions and not meetings. Decisions may or may not be made at this time, but your input will contribute to any decisions made in the near future.

All discussions will take place in the parking lot at First Community South at 9am unless otherwise noted. In the event of rain, we will move the gathering to the main room at Lincoln Road Chapel. Please sign up for the discussions so we can anticipate set up needs.

If you’re unable to participate in the discussion due to other commitments, we still want to hear from you. Please send us your brief thoughts and questions. The Suggestions Box will also be out during the next two weeks for volunteers who want to write a short note.

Schedule

Click to enlarge

Volunteer Activities

There are some pretty big projects we want to tackle during this service hiatus and many hands are needed to complete them! Large quantities of food stock and other storage will be moved in between buildings during the second week of our hiatus. We are asking volunteers to sign up only if they are willing and able to lift and carry at least 25 pounds while walking several yards and using several sets of stairs. This will be physically taxing and we need volunteers who are able to handle the demand.

We will strictly adhere to CDC guidelines regarding social distancing at this time. For this reason, we will not allow walk-in volunteers and are limiting the number of volunteer slots available. Please respect the regulations we have put in place for these activities, for your own health and that of our community.

No worries if you cannot volunteer for the whole shift. Please indicate the approximate arrival/departure in your comments when you sign up. It would be extremely helpful to include your cell phone number in addition to an email address, so we can easily contact you with any last-minute changes of plan.

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Every year, the eligibility requirements change for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). In the state of Ohio, a family of 3 can make $42,659 in a year as of today. Well, that was the case until COVID-19. Now, a family of 3 can make $49,059 in year. As this number has gone up, it is a sign our number of clients could increase as well. Our average family size we serve at Heart to Heart is a single mom with at least 2 children.

Over the past three weeks, we have seen a spike in the number of clients served. Most of the clients we saw this month received food from us before. At the same time, there was a surge in the number of new families who visited us with a total number of 161 households. This year, for the month of March, we served 522 households with a total number of 1,929 individuals. In March 2019, we served 422 households with a total number of 1,433 individuals.

When we first saw how more restrictions were being enforced, we knew we would have to make some changes on how we traditionally serve our clients. Normally, we would allow our clients to come inside the pantry at (1944 W. First Ave) to choose which foods they would like to have for their families. However, with the new restrictions we went to a drive-in system to pre-package all of our clients food. We divided all our pre-packaged bags to reflect either 1 to 4-person family or a family of 5 or more. Families of 1 to 4 select 2 bags of food with  items such as canned soups, canned veggies, toiletry items, and separate bags for produce and refrigeration items. Families with 5 or more people will get 3 bags with the same type food, only more. Inside these bags we also placed resources for various food pantries, bus routes to get to these places, and helpful information for family resources.

I’m very grateful for my team (The Task Force) who created this awesome plan and help to make things run smoothly. They are: Addair Levine, Janice Rook, Michael Delphia, and Melody Smiley. Their hard work came at a time that is much needed to ensure all our clients are being served safely and orderly as well as volunteers being safe.

The outpouring of support from the community has been nothing short of amazing. We appreciate everyone’s response to this crisis. We have appreciated your prayers, your food and monetary donations, volunteer support, etc. We have been truly blessed and will continue to do this very important and needed work for as long as we can.

To Learn more about TEFAP and how this affects our clients, click here.

If you would like to volunteer at Heart to Heart please click here. Please note: everyone is now required to wear a mask or face covering of some sort. Please bring face mask with you to volunteer. Gloves will be provided.

Lamar Graham | Heart to Heart Director
First Community | Where Everyone is Accepted

1320 Cambridge Boulevard, Columbus, Ohio 43212
(614) 488-0681, Ext. 203
(614) 488-2763 Fax

lgraham@FCchurch.com
FCchurch.com | H2H.FCchurch.com

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