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NEWS: December 2015

Local Schools Collect for NEEDS

This winter, in preparation for the holiday season, students at Madeira Elementary, Montgomery Elementary, Blue Ash Elementary, Sycamore Junior High, Greene School and St. Xavier High School have shared their spare time and their best skills collecting for the North East Emergency Distribution Service (NEEDS) food pantry as part of their holiday season ritual and their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.

For the third year in a row and under the guidance of teacher Cheryl Thomas, the Greene School after-school club called STRIVE delivered and put away a massive amount of cans. The Greene School students couldn’t wait to tell the NEEDS adult volunteers that one Greene School student donated his birthday money and bought 1000 cans to donate! The Sycamore Jr. High and Montgomery Elementary School brought two trucks worth of items.  At the November 23rd NEEDS board meeting it was noted that the Sycamore Schools “really filled the pantry” and the board thanked them “for all their help”.  The young men of St. Xavier are known for their strength and endurance. Each school comes with their own skills and each school enhances the pantry.  Students who participate not only learn the value of volunteering, they come to understand the concept of “shelf-life” when organizing the canned goods and they get a taste of how physically hard it is to stock food pantries.

Besides collecting canned goods, every January the NEEDS board organizes a Hat and Mitten Drive. This year the Hat and Mitten Drive will be held on Tuesday, January 11th, at 9 am in the Fellowship Hall of the Kenwood Baptist Church, 8341 Kenwood Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. In addition to hats and mittens, socks are also requested. The hats, mittens and socks collected will be distributed to local schools. It is the school nurses who then give the items to students in need.  If your school, club, troop or neighborhood organization is looking for a winter activity, consider collecting hats, mittens and socks for NEEDS. New items are preferred and donations need to be at the Kenwood Baptist Church by 9 am on January 11th.

The NEEDS Board is comprised of representatives from a community of 25 churches and civic organizations who take part in doing God’s work through caring for their neighbors by providing basic emergency assistance.  NEEDS board oversees an active food pantry that is located in the Kenwood Baptist Church and provides neighbors-in-need with housing and utility payment assistance.  As an all-volunteer cooperative, the NEEDS Executive Board meets monthly to determine the most efficient way to fill its food pantry and how best to spend its resources as they help local families survive stressful times. NEEDS does not receive government funding.  NEEDS serves more than 2,500 people in northeastern Hamilton County. Ask your church, office group or civic organization if it’s part of the community that supports NEEDS; there is always room for more volunteers however you choose to help.

It is the mission of the Northeast Emergency Distribution Service (NEEDS) to provide emergency assistance to the neediest families in the Northeast Cincinnati community.  In addition to canned goods and non-perishables, community members can also support NEEDS monetarily by sending checks to:  NEEDS, 8341 Kenwood Rd., Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. 

The NEEDS food pantry is located at the Kenwood Baptist Church, 8341 Kenwood Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236 and is open Tuesday and Thursdays from 9 am – 1 pm.  During the Christmas/New Years holiday season the pantry will close eat the end of day Tuesday, December 22nd and will re-open Tuesday, January 5th.

Donations of canned goods and other items are always accepted at the NEEDS food pantry. For pick-up of donated items or to ask questions please call (513) 891-0850 or checkout NEEDS website: http://www.cincyneeds.org/

St. Xavier Men
L to R: Young men from St. Xavier:
Matthew Sander, Brett Elminger, Jake Krapke,
Tom Young (St. X. alum & board member husband).

Teacher Cheryl Thomas with the Green School Strive Leaders
Teacher Cheryl Thomas with the Green School
Strive Leaders.

 

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