Monday, June 29, 2009

Asbury United Methodist Church Food Drive

On Saturday, Asbury United Methodist Church (Germantown) did a food drive at the Germantown Safeway. We appreciate those who volunteered their time, and Safeway, too! Not all grocery stores will allow food drives these days... The fine folks from Asbury collected a big SUV-load of excellent nonperishable items, brought them to the pantry and put them away. Great job! We're ready for another week now...

Germantown HELP is also testing the referral email system caseworkers will use to refer their clients to the food pickups... So far, the simple system set up with Google docs seems to work pretty well. We hope to "go live" Wednesday.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Support for DHHS Emergency Services to Begin Soon!

Germantown HELP will be providing bags of nonperishable food to caseworkers at DHHS/Emergency Services/Housing Stabilization, to be distributed to those clients presenting themselves in extreme need of food. Of course, if they are Germantown residents, they can also call Germantown HELP for a food delivery, but they may not have a phone or be able to wait a day or two for a delivery. Dried milk, canned meats/tuna, and fruit juice concentrate in a can are especially needed.

Homeless clients don't have an address for us to deliver to, so we can't usually serve them. We are happy to provide special bags for Emergency Services to distribute for them, containing food with pop-tops or pouches that can be easily eaten and don't really require heating. Packs of tuna and crackers, breakfast bars, small individual cans of juice, small packets of fruit, and other shelf-stable meals and snacks are needed for this effort.

Thanks to St. Nick's for bringing some food by this week! Every bit helps.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Updates

A lot has been going on at Germantown HELP recently... Messiah Lutheran Church, Neelsville Presbyterian Church and Greenridge Baptist Church all collected food for the pantry, which is a big help! The pantry is in pretty good shape; we still need peanut butter, rice and spaghetti sauce, but we're holding our own on everything else for the time being.

Executive Director Cindy Majane met with representatives from the Montgomery County Volunteer Center and Montgomery County Homeland Security last week. Since Germantown HELP has a great network of volunteers, congregations and helpful businesses - and we know who some of our most at-risk residents are - it makes sense to coordinate some disaster pre-planning. For instance, after a hurricane wipes out the power for a few days, could the county borrow the church parking lot to distribute ice? Land a helicopter? Store some supplies for a few days? Things go much more smoothly when there is a point of contact and an agreement in place BEFORE disaster strikes. If your congregation or business would like to help the community in a disaster, we want to know! The Volunteer Center also offers a great Continuing Operations presentation, providing a lot to consider for ANY organization, big or small. More on this later...

Jake Hoffpauir Has a Birthday


Mr. Jake Hoffpauir turned 8 years old on June 15th. Like many kids, he had a nice party to celebrate. Unlike most, however, he decided to accept contributions for Germantown HELP in lieu of birthday presents. Thanks to generous friends and family, he collect $520! He brought the checks to the pantry earlier this week. Thanks, Jake!!

Friday, June 5, 2009


We got a thank-you card from one of our clients...

Monday, June 1, 2009

Women Who Care, The Merchandiser, Trinity UMC all HELP!


The Merchandiser held their company picnic recently, and collected food for us, too. A nice variety of items and a new friend to have in the community. Thank you for your support!

We picked up food from Women Who Care Ministries today... as always, a pleasure to see Executive Director Judith Clark. Lots of nice food, especially all that mac & cheese! Thanks, Judith!

Germantown HELP is seeking to expand by bringing food to pick-up sites and having it picked up by clients, rather than delivering all of it. Of course, we will still deliver to as many people as we can, and always to people who are unable to get to a pickup location. However, having pickups will increase the amount of food we can distribute to our neighbors requesting help. Clients will have to call to request food at a pickup, so we have a package available for them; we can't serve walk-ups.

Trinity United Methodist Church, a longtime sponsor and friend of Germantown HELP, has offered us the use of the front hall to conduct our first "pilot" pickup (we're kind of putting this together as we go along). We appreciate their support very much! We will need volunteers on the first Monday of the month, probably from 6:00-8:00pm, to pack bags, hang out for a couple hours and wait for people to come pick up. Can you help? If so, please email info@germantownhelp.org.

As always, best wishes and thanks for your interest!