Hunger Relief

5.1 million meals provided through our hunger relief programs 2003-present, including:

• 5,265 meals worth of food items provided through the DoorKnob Dinner Project and Let’s Do Dinner!
• 29,422 meals worth of food items donated to food pantries by children through Kids Can! and One Can At A Time*
• 28,750 Thanksgiving turkey dinner meals donated to families in need since 2003
• 3,000 cooked Thanksgiving meals donated to Hurricane Sandy victims – November 2012
• 16,440 meals from Welcome Home Boxes distributed to Hurricane Sandy victims April-July 2013
• 5 million meals provided through Sponsor A Family 2003-today

Sponsor a Family program:

• 2,075 moms, dads, grandparents and kids currently receive food providing 30,000 meals every month with funds provided by 480 donor families.
• Families receiving monthly groceries come from 39 American communities in 17 U.S. states.
• Program operates in: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Texas & West Virginia.

Literacy

The GivingWorks! Empathy Project (2012-Present)

• 977 at-risk low-income children in total participated (394 middle and high school age “book givers” and 583 preschool and kindergarten recipients)
• 2,331 donated books went home with 583 low-income preschool & kindergarten children
• Family-to-Family coordinated and provided supplies for 17 GivingWorks! events to date.

One Book At A Time

• 400+ recipient children around the country have received one book a month from an equal number of linked sponsors
• Recipient children have received over 8,000 new books in total
• Donors come from 26 U.S. states, Canada and Australia.

Traveling Journal (2011-2015)

• 66 classrooms of children linked since the fall of 2009
• Approximately 1,650 children have participated to date

Books for Life

• 27,000 gently used books shipped or delivered to U.S. communities in need by Family-to-Family donors since 2003

Other Hands-on Giving Projects

Birthday Boxes – 9,400+ made and donated to date

Stuffed Shirts for the Homeless (Personal Care products) – 830 shirts stuffed with basic hygiene products made and delivered since September 2011

Hurricane Sandy Relief – 2012-13

• Provided 860 “Welcome Home boxes” filled with groceries and home cleaning products to 810 families affected by Hurricane Sandy, providing over 16,200 meals for about 3,240 moms, dads, grandparents and kids.
• Awarded gift cards good for rebuilding materials to 100 Broad Channel families (65 families received $300 gift cards and 35 received $100 cards).
• Provided funds for a 2x/week Broad Channel after-school program for 50+ families so parents had time to work on repairing homes as well as lengthen their work day.
• Linked 700 donors with 350 families (about 1,500 moms, dads, kids) affected by the disaster. Sponsors coordinated between themselves to purchase and send the specific items (e.g. pillows, towels, dishes, pots and pans, blankets, clothing, a teapot, etc.) lost by their assigned family.
• Purchased 100 industrial push brooms for a “Clean-up Broad Channel” event.
• Purchased 300 air mattresses – 200 for Far Rockaway families and 100 for families with kids at PS 90 in Coney Island who were sleeping on the floors of neighbors and friends.
• Purchased items that were initially in very short supply: e.g., winter coats, pillows, bedding, space heaters, underwear, socks, personal care items, work gloves, face masks, etc., distributing them through our on-the-ground partners.
• Directed in-kind donations of supplies to our on-the-ground partners from hundreds of individuals and companies that contacted us wanting to donate items directly to families affected by the storm.
• Provided over 3,000 victims of Hurricane Sandy with a complete and fully cooked Thanksgiving dinner.
• Organized a holiday ornaments drive to “Light up the Rockaways” for distribution to families that lost their own decorations in the storm.
• Spearheaded a toy, wrapping paper, tape and ribbon drive that yielded over 2,000 toys and hundreds of rolls of wrapping paper.

 

* We estimate the number of meals provided from non-perishable food donations to our Kids Can!, One Can at a Time and Pantry Partners programs by using USDA estimates that 1.2 lbs. is a meal for one person.