For the last four years, the students at St. Xavier High School compete with each other to see who can bring in the most non-perishable food items for NEEDS!
The students go in their neighborhoods and request non-perishable donations and then bring them to school where they are weighted to see who brought in the most!
This year on November 3, St X alumni) Tom Young and Dean Backscheider (in photo above) brought the donations of canned fruit, vegetables, cereal and other much needed supplies.
Over 3,700 pounds of food were donated!
NEEDS volunteers came in to sort and stock the generous donation. With the holidays coming up, this will help many families have a good holiday.
Thank you St. Xavier High School!!!
You can drop off a donation of nonperishable food, household supplies (laundry and dish soap), or personal hygiene items to:
Kenwod Baptist Church 8341 Kenwood Rd Cincinnati, OH 45241
Our volunteers are there Tuesday and Thursday 9:00 am-1:00 pm. You can drop off donations at the church office Monday-Thursday 9:00 amd-4:00 pm.
Please send us an email cincyneedspresident@gmail.com or phone (513) 891-0850 to tell us you are dropping off a donation, so we can be prepared.
In keeping with the tradition of the last few years, All Saints Church and School held their annual Bob Meyer Memorial Food Drive for NEEDS and collected over 3000 non-perishable food items, personal hygiene and household cleaning supplies. The collection was held October 7-13, 2019 and students who participated earned community service/confirmation hours. The items were delivered to the NEEDS pantry on October 14, 2019.
Seventh grade students, teachers, parents and NEEDS volunteers helped carry items into the pantry and sort them.
The collection is held each year in memory of Bob Meyer who took a special interest in this project by distributing signs, collecting, organizing and delivering the items collected. He died in 2017.
The shelves at NEEDS run low this time of year and we are all extremely grateful for this wonderful outpouring of love.
If you would like to organize a collection drive for NEEDS, please email us via our Contact Us page. We appreciate it!
October 5 and 6, 2019 was the WE CAN food collection weekend at Montgomery Community Church on Montgomery road. The church donates non-perishable food to NEEDS 4 times a year!
Thank you to Montgomery Community Church and to Sarah Bowman for heading this up!
If your church would like to organize a food collection for NEEDS, please contact our Food Pantry Director Maureen Flanagan at m2flanagan@aol.com.
Montgomery Community van loaded with donations for NEEDS
There are so many ways we can combat poverty and hunger in Cincinnati. Donations of food and finances are wonderful. Time volunteering is another great help.
NEEDS is in need of a volunteer to compose blog posts for our website and Facebook pages. You will provide a very valuable service helping us communicate our services to families in north east Cincinnati.
This position can be done from home and might take 1-2 hours a week. Attending monthly board meetings (fourth Monday of the month in the evening in Kenwood, Ohio) is highly encouraged as well so you are aware of the events and news to share on our website and social media.
Some knowledge of WordPress, our website platform, and Facebook would be helpful, but we can train you.
If you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact NEEDS current website editor Carol Topp at CincyNEEDSTreasurer@gmail.com.
The NEEDS food pantry is in need of the following: Personal care items, especially:
conditioner deodorant shaving cream and razors tampons toilet paper dish washing soap laundry soap
Food items in short supply are:
canned chicken canned soup canned vegetables of all kinds, including tomatoes and tomato sauce cereal and granola bars packaged side dishes such as potato mixes , rice and noodle dishes, stuffing dessert items such as cake mix, brownie mix, cookies, etc.
Please drop off these donations at NEEDS during business hours: Monday-Thursday 9 am – 4 pm at the lower level of Kenwood Baptist Church 8241 Kenwood Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45241
NEEDS has volunteers at the church on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 9 am -1 pm. to help unload your donation.
Call 513-891-0850 to let us know you are dropping off a donation.
I worked the NEEDS front desk for many years. Each church represented on the Board was responsible for finding volunteers from their church, helping with pantry duties, and filling the pantry with fresh items. It was my church’s turn and I was serving as a pantry volunteer.
A wonderful young man came in. He had walked from the bus stop a few blocks away and he needed food. My fellow-volunteer knew that we could not give him all the food he needed because there was no way he could carry all the food with him onto the bus.
We took a gamble. She had a cell phone which she gave me and I kept it on while I walked the man and his boxes and bags of food to my car to drive him home. She called her cell phone from the NEEDS phone line and kept the line open in case I was a fool and needed help!
Would you do this today? Probably not.
This young man turned out to be a wonderful husband and father. He eventually became a friend too!
Sometimes trusting and taking a gamble (with a helpful cell phone) is what NEEDS volunteers do!
Faithful volunteers line up to sort, pack and distribute school items to at least 16 schools
August 12, 2019 found more than 20 faithful NEEDS volunteers gathered at 8 a.m. to unpack, sort, repack and deliver school supplies to the Deer Park, Sycamore, Princeton and Madeira school districts.
The annual event provides basic school supplies i.e. binders, backpacks, pencils, pens and crayons to students in those districts. Approximately 16 schools are reached.
The items are collected from the participating churches in the NEEDS (North East Distribution Services) organization which is housed in Kenwood Baptist Church.
Loyal Deer Park school district residents came out to help with the drive. Chris Huster (left) worked for 32 years in the Deer Park District and is now on the school board. Masha Huster (10 years old) and Jeff Pfohl (right), also on the school board, came out to lend a hand. NEEDS Board President Ann Barfels sorts piles of donated school supplies.
We had an elderly gentleman come to the food pantry for the first time. He was nicely dressed, so nicely dressed, in fact, I thought he had come to the food pantry to donate food rather than because he needed help.
He was very proud that he had never needed this kind of help before, but an emergency had happened and his family needed help. We registered him and packed the food for his family.
When he saw all the food being wheeled out on the cart for him, you could see the tears welling up in his eyes. It was all he could do to keep the tears under control. He was EXTREMELY grateful!
NEEDS food pantry is open Tuesday and Thursdays from 9 am- 1 pm at the lower level of Kenwood Baptist Church, 8341 Kenwood Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45236.
NEEDS is a Community Partner with Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank Emergency feeding organizations such as NEEDS are working with Freestore Foodbank to help give hope to those who need it most.
This partnership allows NEEDS to purchase food, produce, dairy and meat items for free or at greatly reduced cost. This means that our donation dollars get stretched further and we can offer more emergency financial assistance to families in Northeast Cincinnati.
Together, NEEDS and the Freestore Foodbank fight hunger and help bring hope to those who need it most.
NEEDS provides food, personal care items and emergency financial assistance to individuals and families in northeast Cincinnati.
Our office hours and pantry are open Tuesday and Thursday 9 am -1 pm. at
Many years ago we helped a family. The mom and dad worked full time and their grandchildren needed special care. Finances were tight, so NEEDS helped with food and emergency financial assistance.
The mom said when she retired she would pay it back by volunteering at the NEEDS pantry and she kept that promise! A week after retirement she was trained as a Desk Volunteer and worked this position for over 10 years. Her husband had health issues that needed her so she had to end her commitment to volunteer at NEEDS.
Her children are fine and her grandchildren have grown to be wonderful people.
As Mother Teresa said. “ Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you”— and NEEDS did this.
If you would like to volunteer at NEEDS, please contact us by email or phone 513- 891-0850.
