Janie and Maureen of the NEEDS pantry shared this letter to our friends at Ursuline Academy:
“Wow! We can’t thank you enough for your generous donation to the NEEDS food pantry! Each year the students work so hard to plan and execute this canned food drive that helps so many of our neighbors in need. NEEDS is blessed to be one of the recipients of this event. We were excited to pick up two full pallets of food and personal care items. We appreciate the work the students did to sort and box the product. This made it so much easier for us to put it away.
Students Emma Clark and Mary Noschang did a great job of keeping us informed of the plan. They gave us the opportunity to share a list of items that we needed the most and coordinated our pickup time. What a great display of leadership! We love seeing young people involved in community service.
Your donation will go a long way in helping needy families in our area.”
NEEDS is grateful for the support we receive from our faithful partners. Regular donations from churches, schools, and other organizations help us to maintain pantry supplies throughout the year. Recently, pantry coordinator Maureen shared two great examples. The first was a large donation from Hartzell United Methodist Church:
“What a surprise to have a full carload of nonperishable food and personal care items show up in our drive-through last week! Just who was our benefactor? We found out that the generous members of Hartzell United Methodist Church had collected many of the items on the ‘wish list’ we send out to our member churches. Thank you so much for the wonderful donation, and most of all, for your ongoing support!”
Another terrific donation arrived thanks to the Madeira High School Key Club:
“Julie Leugers, advisor to the Madeira High School Key Club, contacted NEEDS recently to let us know that her students and their families were holding yet ANOTHER drive to benefit our food pantry. What wonderful supporters they have become in our efforts to meet the emergency needs of our neighbors!
Julie and her fellow teacher, Kim, arrived Monday April 18 with two full vehicles of donated food and personal care items. Club members and their families couldn’t have picked a better time to donate. Summer has always been a long dry spell for those who donate to the pantry. Schools are out, and members of local companies and churches are on vacation. But the emergency needs of our neighbors don’t take a holiday. Every donation helps us to stock the pantry for the summer months ahead.”
A big thank you to Hartzell UMC and Madeira HS Key Club for their reliable support!
Pantry coordinator Maureen shared this story about local realtors helping to stock our neighbors’ homes with much-needed food:
“Three well-heeled, professional women pulled into our NEEDS drive-through recently – all members of a Comey & Shepherd realtors branch. Cindy Flynn, Sue Miller, and Sue Wahl brought their office’s carload of donations personally.
The 10-pound bags of rice they brought alone were amazing! They’ll be perfect for the larger families of six to ten that we serve. And all of the other items will go far in stocking our shelves for the long summer months ahead. With schools closed and members of local churches and companies on vacations, few people donate to us during the warmer months.”
The best part? Comey & Shepherd will be holding another office food drive later this summer – and their goal is to double what they brought in this time!
As prices rise, requests for food and emergency assistance go up too. In fact, the past month saw the pantry serving 150% of our usual number of clients! Here are this month’s totals:
During the month of March, the NEEDS pantry provided food to 123 families – for a total of 435 people!
NEEDS also provided emergency financial assistance to 10 families, distributing $3676.78 to cover rent and utilities.
Here’s a heartwarming story from NEEDS pantry coordinator Maureen:
“Madeira Elementary School students and their families are among the NEEDS pantry’s biggest supporters. After holding a very successful drive for the pantry in fall 2021, they did it again in March 2022.
Heading up the effort were teachers Katie Naegeli and Sunday Bernicke. When NEEDS volunteers arrived on March 25 to pick up the drive’s proceeds, they had very little work to do. The school’s student leaders carried all but the heaviest boxes to the cars, excited and proud of their efforts. Donations filled four SUVs.
Madeira Elementary School students are learning early that ‘it takes a village’ to meet the emergency needs of our less fortunate neighbors.”
Pantry coordinator Maureen recently shared this good news:
“It started with a short phone call from the manager of the Pet Supplies Plus store in Independence, Kentucky. She asked if the NEEDS pantry was still interested in pet food and supplies for its clients, saying that she had quite a lot on hand. Of course we were interested! And we said we’d be down to pick it up within an hour or two.
The manager and her staff wheeled cartload after cartload of items out of their storage area, and loaded them into our waiting SUV. They filled not only the cargo area, but the floor wells and the front seats. Best of all, they promised to call with more! For our clients – who struggle to feed themselves, let alone their pets – that’s a golden promise!”
