Our first newsletter of the year is a little late in coming, but things just never seem to slow down around here long enough to put it together! We have a lot to tell you about this month, including many new donating chapters and lots of news from our receiving communities. As always, please email us with any news so we can include it in the next newsletter.

Chapter News
First, we’d like to say goodbye and a huge thank you to chapter chair Mary Kay Woodruff of Edgewood, Kentucky, who is, at least for now, passing on her chapter chair duties to Francis Akin. Mary Kay’s chapter has been supporting families in both Pembroke, Illinois and Cherryfield, Maine, and Francis will continue with those families. We’d like to welcome Francis to Family-to-Family, as well as our other new chapter chairs -- Jennifer Drees of Hebron, Kentucky and Liza Johnson of Quakertown, Pennsylvania… both supporting Montrose, Arkansas, and Naomi Gurt Lind of Newton, Massachusetts who is supporting Belmont, New York… Jenae Leahy of Oxnard, California, Jim King of Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey and Lisa Gerideau-Williams of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, all supporting Thoreau, New Mexico.

Thank You Old Dominion
Without fanfare, close to one hundred and twenty of F-to-F’s food boxes are picked up every month from Chapter Chairs across the U.S. and delivered, free of charge, by truckers for Old Dominion Freight Lines.

It’s been almost two years since Pam first called John Yowell, Old Dominion’s Chief Operating Officer, to tell him the story of Family-to-Family and the families we feed, and to ask if he would consider shipping some of our food boxes for free. Yowell said yes without hesitation.

Old Dominion, headquartered in Thomasville, North Carolina, generously picks up F-to-F food boxes from 14 chapter locations in Georgia, Connecticut, Texas, Michigan, Virginia and New York every month, delivering to 8 of our 15 receiving communities -- Myra and Beverly, Kentucky… Cairo, Illinois… Hope and Montrose, Arkansas… Jackson, Mississippi… Kermit, West Virginia and Lake Providence, Louisiana. (FedEx helps with many of the others.)

Cindy Beal is our contact at Old Dominion; she’s the one who lets the truckers know when boxes are ready to be picked up, and who solves problems for us whenever they come up. We wondered how many truckers and other OD workers are involved in getting our boxes to their destinations. To give us an idea, Cindy explained how ten F-to-F boxes get from Scarsdale, New York, to Kermit, West Virginia:

After chapter chair Andrea Kaplan calls Cindy to let her know her boxes are out front and ready to be picked up, an Old Dominion truck arrives at her house and a local driver (1st OD person involved) loads them onto his truck. He brings them to Old Dominion’s Jersey City, N.J. terminal, where a dockworker (2nd person involved) unloads the boxes and re-loads them onto a trailer truck…. The driver of that truck (3rd person involved) then drives them to Harrisburg, Pa. Another dockworker (4th person involved) unloads the boxes and re-loads them onto yet another trailer, the driver of which (5th person) carries them to a terminal in Charleston, West Virginia. A dockworker there (6th person involved) unloads them and re-loads them onto a “pick-up and delivery” truck, and the driver of that truck (7th person!) brings them to The Marrowbone Food Pantry in Kermit, W.V. Multiply that number by all the different chapters they pick up from, and all the communities they deliver to… that’s a lot of people!

Community Updates
Belmont (Allegany County), New York
Tami Hamilton, our community contact at the ACCORD Corporation in Belmont writes, “Hello from Allegany County New York. Our families are reporting that the economy and winter weather is making it tougher for them. We are hearing complaints of high heating costs, increasing food costs, property taxes, the lack of employment options, and with many families transportation has been a barrier that has gotten even worse from high gas prices. Even a little increase in these expense areas can throw a poverty stricken family in crisis--- they have no surplus to help with the additional expense. This region has also experienced a bad flu season. Many people are down with the flu for weeks, even with medical care. This has led to time missed from work, child care issues, and increased family expenses. We are eagerly awaiting spring’s arrival so people can get some relief from the heating costs and start planting their gardens.”

Lemmon, South Dakota
“It is starting to look and feel like spring in western S.D. The small amount of snow we had has melted and we are still praying for a late wet snow or rain for the much needed moisture before it is time to plant crops. Most of the ranchers are just getting started lambing and calving so it is a busy time. The high cost of gas is having a major effect on our economy. The assistance received by our families is so appreciated. Thank you for your help each month.” – Florence Hoff, Lemmon Community Food Pantry

Montrose, Arkansas
“I would like to report that the families in Montrose are thankful for the continued gifts of love from their sponsored families from Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The last three months have been really rough here in the Delta. Here, as it is in most of the country, the high cost of gasoline, which is up to $3.20 a gallon for regular unleaded, is the highest it has ever been. The high heating bills to heat homes have jumped to a record high here; some families are paying a home heating bill as high as $300 a month, and they still have to paid for rent, lights, water etc. The price of food, and most needed daily care supplies has jumped in price; this has brought about a hardship for most families, and is out of reach for some. I had a parent tell me, “I had to pay almost $7.00 dollars for one gallon of milk and one loaf of bread.” It is rough...

We are having a winter that we haven’t had before, cold and freezing a couple of days, then 60 and 70 degrees the next. This has caused many adults and children to be sick with colds and the flu. We are living in hard times and it is a blessing to have families who still want to share out of what they have with those that don’t have as much. We salute all of the devoted Family-to-Family team, for their hard work. Arma Woods and the families here in Montrose, AR are grateful for the connection!” – Arma Woods, Full Gospel Church Outreach Ministry

Red Bird Mission – Beverly, Kentucky
Stacia Carwell of Red Bird Mission writes, “The Red Bird Community has been dealing with the flu and the weather as it can. A lot of schools in our area have actually been closed for a week at a time due to sickness. Whenever it snows most schools are canceled as well. The weird thing is, one day we will be closed due to weather and the next everyone is outside without jackets because it's so warm! We're supposed to hit 70 degrees today, snow in two days... here we go again!”

Myra, Kentucky
Lots of news from Myra… Last week about 5 inches of snow fell there… Lois Tackett says it made it impossible to get around on the mountain roads. “Nobody could get anywhere,” she tells us. She also says that the whole community has been hit hard by the flu -- 4 out of the 5 people in her own household had it (Lois, her son and her 2 grand-daughters… only her husband Ralph escaped). She says that because of the flu, the medicine recently sent by F-to-F families has been especially welcome… She also says cleaning supplies are a big help.

Lois’s son Linden recently started a project to help keep local teens out of trouble and away from drugs… he’s teaching them how to fix cars and repair car body damage. Lois and Ralph had a garage built at their house so the project would have a “home”. Linden, who is 17, is teaching about seven 18-20 year olds. They can bring their own cars in if they have a broken car they want to get going (or a car with damaged bodywork), or, if they don’t have a car to work on, Linden supplies them with a “project truck”… an old truck they can work on to learn how the engine works and to practice body work on. Lois says the teens like coming because they know they’re in a safe place. She says the only trouble Linden has is getting supplies to keep the project going… including tools, car paint, sanding paper, fiberglass filler… She says Linden knows so much about cars because “…his daddy set him under the hood in a baby carrier when he was 6 months old! When he was 4 he took my stove apart and lost all the bolts…and then he took a lawn mower apart… But now he can work on electronics like it’s nobody’s business.”

A woman who has taken an interest in Myra wrote to tell us, “I recently spoke to Lois at Manna from Heaven. I have been sending her lots of fabric and she sent me a wonderful gift at Christmas from some of the fabric that I had sent her. It was a beautiful table runner and matching placemats with napkins. My family and friends were so excited to see them that I have been able to get orders for 10 more as well as quilts (5). We supply the fabric and they make them according to our preference. This will (supply Manna From Heaven) and the person that made them with some extra cash! I wanted to write that your organization made this all possible. It's a great project…. (Family-to-Family purchased 10 sewing machines for Lois Tackett with a grant from the Ziv Tzedakah Fund so that Lois could give local women sewing lessons and help them make items to sell.) …You all should be so proud. They really have all learned to sew and are really excited about it…Manna has also been asked to make Layette sets for a local unwed mothers home and also lap blankets for the elderly at a local nursing home. They are now being taught to knit and crochet! Supplies are always needed!

“Lois told me that she now has over 1300 families that come to the mission. This year they are planning a community day in May (May 3rd). The community day will be for all the community to come and help plant the community garden. They had such success last year with their vegetable growing that it supplied the whole community. Thru a generous donation of seed from Heifer International they will be able to supply seed to about 900 families. They are (still) in need of Tomato, Watermelon, Pepper, Corn and Bean seeds. None were in the 5,000 packets that were sent to them. At the community day Lois will be handing out all the seed packets to each family. I also sent them 100 gardening tool sets and 500 pairs of gardening gloves to hand out. They will be serving refreshments and the whole community will gather to help Manna as well as each other.” - Ellen M.

Lois has other projects in the works as well! When her garden starts yielding crops, she plans to hold a canning class, to teach local families the art of canning food. She is also working with the schools and 4H Clubs to help plant gardens for the elderly. And thanks to a donation of 26 chickens (21 hens and 5 roosters), Lois and her husband Ralph are now raising chickens and want to help others in the area get started raising chickens as well… so they can farm their own eggs. She says hens can lay up to 300 eggs a year – which would be a big help to a lot of local families. To help make that happen, Pam just bought 300 chickens for Lois to give away, from McMurray Hatchery in Webster City, Iowa. (We’d like to thank McMurray’s – after hearing who the chickens were for, they generously offered to ship them to Kentucky for free.) And at the May 3rd community celebration, Lois and Ralph will be collecting scrap wood to build nesting boxes for the hens.

Lois and Ralph also have three pigs, and Lois says if she could get a male pig she would breed them to give pigs away to local families as well. (Can anyone buy Lois a male pig?) Her goal is to eventually create small agra-businesses in the community… hoping to help local families become more self-sufficient.

The Latest from Family-to-Family in Uganda
Jerome Kasekende (who started a satellite F-to-F program in Kampala, Uganda last year) reports that his Family-to-Family chapter recently sponsored a one-day workshop at GCBC, a community outreach organization that cares for and supports Ugandan people living with AIDS. The workshop was held to educate infected children about their disease, to help them understand the problems they will face and to let them know what help is available. When the coordinator of GCBC told Jerome he had no funds to provide lunch for the children, Jerome contacted all his Family-to-Family donors and raised about $200 dollars to buy the children a big lunch.

Snuggle Blankies Have Arrived!
After literally months since we shipped close to 100 crocheted blankies to Uganda (to be given out to orphaned and HIV/AIDS infected babies), Jerome tells us they have finally arrived. He writes,

“Thank you very much for the blankies. They are beautiful. I am sure the babies will be excited to have them. My Mum is so happy she can’t wait to give them to the kids. Please Pam thank the women who knit the blankies may the Lord reward them accordingly. I am sure they were knitted with love they are so beautiful. Well I did find also baby clothes I was so surprised they are brand new thank you. I also found an electric tooth brush. I wonder what lucky baby is going to get the toothbrush? Thank you very much may the almighty Lord reward your works. Yours, Jerome”

A few days after writing this, Jerome emailed us pictures of a baby with one of the blankets and the new clothes, with her mother at their home. He writes, “The young lady is HIV positive and she lost her husband before she had the baby. Lucky enough the baby is negative. She has no job -- we have managed to give her food that can last for two weeks and also the baby we gave tinned milk.”

He also sent pictures of another woman his Family-to-Family program is helping – an elderly woman who takes care of her grandson.

Birthday Buddies Taking Off
We’ve seen a recent outpouring of generosity from people interested in sending birthday buddies boxes to children in our receiving communities. Just one example: Two children from Hamilton Square, New Jersey, with a little help from their mom, coordinated with their school during “Caring Week”, sending home flyers asking each child to fill and decorate individual boxes. After three weeks they collected between 40 and 50 “…individually wrapped shoe boxes filled with toys, cake mixes, frosting, muffin cup liners, decorations and candles.” The boxes were sent to children in Myra, Kentucky.

The same two children also organized the collection of 150 gently used books which they sent to F-to-F’s Thoreau, New Mexico community. After the book drive, the children’s karate school voted them “Students of the Month.”

Not only that, but several Girl Scout troops have contacted us about holding “Giving Parties” (making birthday buddies boxes at a party) on March 12th as a way to celebrate the founding of the Girl Scouts.

Community Profile–Hope, Arkansas
by MJ Territo

“Hope is a great place that shows love and compassion for people.” Reverend Gwen Jones, Family-to-Family’s coordinator for Hope, Arkansas, grew up in Hope. She was among the first black children to attend newly integrated schools. “My parents never taught us to be racist or prejudiced. They didn’t teach us to retaliate, so when we went to white schools we were able to blend in and get along. It was a great experience.” But the biggest hope in Hope, Reverend Gwen finds, is that Sunday morning segregation is at last coming to an end. “People want to change and not be segregated. The time has come now where congregations are multiracial.”

Hope is well-known as the birthplace of Bill Clinton. It is also the birthplace of another former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee. Hope’s other claim to fame is being “the watermelon capital” of the world. Every year, during the second week in August, Hope is the site of the Watermelon Festival, where farmers from all over the region compete to have their produce named the largest and sweetest. The festival attracts thousands of visitors from the US and abroad. Held on the town’s fairgrounds, the event features games, arts and crafts vendors, and plenty of good local food, ranging from the usual Southern barbeque to the more exotic alligator stews. Taking a note from its annual festival, Hope’s city slogan is “A Slice of the Good Life.”

But the good life is elusive for many in Hope. Employment is tight. There is a Tyson factory, a Southern Bakery factory, and a Super Wal-Mart, but there are still not enough jobs for everyone who wants to work. Transportation is a Catch 22. There is no public transport, and most jobs require a car to get to them. If you can’t afford a car, you can’t get to work; if you can’t work, you can’t afford a car. And although Hope has a well-regarded school system, as well as a community college branch of the University of Arkansas, not everyone manages to graduate from high school and acquire the skills that would allow them to work at jobs that pay better than minimum wage.

The receiving families in Hope are seniors living on a fixed income…. and kids from “The Homework Club” – Pam’s after-school program in Hastings on Hudson, New York -- each bring in cans of food every month that Pam boxes up and ships to Hope. According to Reverend Gwen, the end-of-month food supplement helps a great deal to stretch meager resources. “The families appreciate the kind services and thank them. They thank God that He has a blessing for someone less fortunate.”

That's all for this month

Best,
Pam and the Family-to-Family team
– written & edited by Nancy Hennessee

Family-to-Family is a recognized 501(c)(3)
Our US IRS tax ID number is 57-1169066

For more information, contact Pam Koner, Family-to-Family
Tel: 914-478-0756