With a pandemic holiday season in full swing, many of us are missing warm hugs from our loved ones. However, we can still spread some cheer with HUGSS!
Each year, NEEDS holds a HUGSS (hats, undies, gloves, socks, and sweats) drive to provide students in the Princeton, Deer Park, and Sycamore school districts with much-needed warm winter clothing. Over 70% of Princeton students and over 50% of Deer Park students rely on financial assistance from the school district and the government; often, these students’ families struggle to afford essential winter gear. For Deer Park students, many of whom walk to school each day due to lack of bus service, the need is especially great.
You can help us meet that need!
In order to provide winter clothing as safely as possible, NEEDS is currently collecting financial donations (including gift cards) to share with each school district. School officials will use these donations to purchase the items that their students need.
If you would like to contribute, simply mail a check (with “HUGSS” in the memo line) to our address below. Gift cards for Meijer, Walmart, and Target are also welcome.
You can also drop off your check or gift cards any time NEEDS is open in December (Tuesday and Thursdays 9 am to 1 pm) at Kenwood Baptist Church.
Thanks to several recent food drives, the NEEDS pantry shelves are mostly full. However, the pantry is still in need of some crucial (and more expensive) items.
Toiletries: Body wash Deodorant (men’s and women’s) Shaving cream and razors Feminine hygiene products (pads and tampons) Laundry and dish soap Baby wipes Hand soap / sanitizer Home cleaning products
Food: Canned clam chowder Pasta sauce
Donations can be dropped off at Kenwood Baptist Church Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. NEEDS volunteers are at the church on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm. Thank you!
As usual, NEEDS stayed busy in November, providing both food and emergency assistance to numerous families. Here are our totals for the month:
During November, the NEEDS pantry provided food to 92 families – for a total of 347 people! NEEDS also provided emergency financial assistance to 6 families, distributing a total of $2050.00 to cover rent and utilities.
Now that the Christmas season is underway, NEEDS volunteers are preparing for our annual winter clothing drive. Check back for details soon!
Happy Thanksgiving! This year, NEEDS is especially thankful for a generous gift from Montgomery Community Church.
NEEDs serves our community by providing both food and emergency financial assistance. Local food drives and individual donations help us to keep the pantry stocked, but it’s often necessary to dip into our funds to shop for groceries to fill the shelves. This means that we have less money available for clients in need of financial assistance.
Montgomery Community Church has stepped in with an amazing offer: they will underwrite up to $1000 worth of grocery purchases. But it gets even better! MCC has extended this offer for a whole nine months, from October through June! NEEDS is so grateful to MCC for a wonderful gift that will help us to reach more people in need.
Thanksgiving is next week! If you’re shopping for a special meal, please consider picking up something extra for those in need.
Here is a list of our pantry’s most-needed items.
Food: Canned vegetables, especially greens and sweet potatoes/yams Canned pineapple Pasta sauce Boxed dishes, including rice and potato mixes, stuffing, and Hamburger/Tuna Helper Canned chicken and salmon Canned meals, especially ravioli Canned beans Pancake mix and syrup
Cleaning and personal care items (these are the most difficult items for the pantry to keep in stock!): Dish and laundry soap Feminine hygiene products (tampons and pads) Toothpaste and toothbrushes Body wash Shampoo and conditioner Hand soap and sanitizer Shaving cream and razors Deodorant Toilet paper and paper towels
Donations can be dropped off at Kenwood Baptist Church Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. NEEDS volunteers are at the church on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm. Thank you!
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church has been a faithful NEEDS partner for years – but sometimes they still surprise us with their generosity!
Recently, Good Shepherd held a food drive to benefit NEEDS. Three vehicles were soon filled with some of the pantry’s most-needed items. The drive was so successful that it took six volunteers all of four hours to organize and shelve the donations.
Soccer players at All Saints School and Saint Vincent Ferrer School were sad to learn that there would be no contact sports this fall. Luckily, they were still able to put their teamwork skills to good use!
Coach Bill Keehn organized a food drive for NEEDS (combined with a greeting card drive for a senior living facility). Together, the soccer teams collected a full van load of food and personal care items to donate to the pantry. What a win!
Happy fall! Here are NEEDS’ service totals for the past month:
During October, the NEEDS pantry provided food to 103 families – for a total of 379 people! NEEDS also provided emergency financial assistance to 17 families, distributing a total of $5,600.00 to cover rent and utilities.
Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Be on the lookout for upcoming holiday events and opportunities at NEEDS!
Sometimes the best gift is an item that would otherwise go to waste, as three recent donations to the NEEDs pantry show.
Last week, NEEDS volunteers received a visit from Jason of Harlow-HRK, a food broker that represents a variety of consumer products to the Kroger grocery company. Jason stopped by to unload a trunkful of specialty items for the pantry, including flours, grains, baking mixes, coffee, and snack foods. This wasn’t Jason’s first visit – and NEEDS is so grateful that he thinks of us when he has leftover products to share.
Harlow-HRK isn’t the only organization to share extras with NEEDS. The Mason Food Pantry, located on the Grace Chapel campus in Mason, recently donated two crates of chunky soup to the NEEDS pantry. Another donation came from Operation Give Back in Blue Ash: OGB regularly receives leftover bread from local Panera restaurants, and they have generously decided to share the extra bread with NEEDS.
When it comes to helping our community, we’re all in this together!
Over the past several weeks, NEEDS volunteers have been getting ready to restock the pantry to meet the increased need that our clients experience during the colder months. To our excitement, several individuals and groups have recently stepped up to help by hosting food drives.
First up: Maggie Albers, who began volunteering with NEEDS this summer as part of her high school capstone project. Maggie’s “Do What You CAN” drive brought in two full carloads of food and personal care items for the pantry!
But Maggie wasn’t the only student eager to help. Inspired by WLWT’s Day of Giving, the Madeira High School Key Club hosted a food drive to benefit NEEDS – and when two more vehicles loaded with donations arrived at the pantry, it was clear that the drive had been a success!
Among NEEDS’ most faithful supporters are our member churches, including Church of the Saviour United Methodist. Recently, Church of the Saviour held a hugely successful food drive that benefited not only NEEDS but five other organizations. Thanks to this drive, NEEDS volunteers were able to fill several gaps on the pantry shelves with much-needed nonperishables.
Finally, NEEDS held a two-day food drive that attracted donors from 10 different churches and civic organizations. A big thank you to the volunteers who staffed this event, including Moeller High School senior Kyler Graves!
