As any parent can attest, the last few months of the school year were a chaotic time. Isolated from friends, and with routines totally disrupted, many students struggled to focus on schoolwork – especially as the year dwindled to a close, with no return to normalcy in sight. Impressively, the students of Archbishop Moeller High School made an effort to help others before wrapping up school for the summer, by organizing a multi-day food drive to benefit NEEDS and other organizations.
Under Moeller’s House System, students from all four grades are divided into communities that promote mentoring and leadership development. House System director Karen Matuszek challenged the houses to see which community could contribute the most food and personal care items. A convenient drive-through setup enabled Moeller families to drop off donations easily and safely. The results were phenomenal: several tables were completely covered with essential supplies!
NEEDS is so grateful to the Moeller House System for helping us to meet the needs of our clients during an incredibly stressful time. Thank you!
“A bucket brigade on a five-alarm fire.” According to a recent Time article (https://time.com/5825944/food-banks-coronavirus/), that’s how the Ohio Association of Foodbanks’ executive director describes the plight of food pantries across our state. Hit hard by the economic repercussions of COVID-19, countless people who never dreamed of seeking aid are turning to organizations like NEEDS in order to feed their families. It’s a challenge to keep pantry shelves stocked – and that’s why NEEDS is so grateful to the local businesses, churches, and individuals who are helping our pantry to stay open during crisis.
Recently, NEEDS received a generous donation of frozen meat from La Soupe (https://lasoupe.org/) – a Cincinnati organization that fights both waste and hunger by rescuing perishable food. The NEEDS freezer didn’t have enough space for the donation, so pantry coordinators Janie and Maureen reached out to the Community of the Good Shepherd for assistance. Less than an hour later, the donated meat was safely stored in the Good Shepherd parish’s industrial freezer. What a wonderful example of different groups each doing their part to support our community! Thanks to La Soupe’s generosity and Good Shepherd’s loan of freezer space, NEEDS can supply clients with much-needed food that would otherwise be wasted.
If you would like to support NEEDS, we welcome financial donations! Simply mail a check payable to NEEDS to: NEEDS c/o Kenwood Baptist Church 8341 Kenwood Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45236
