What started in 2017 as a small pilot sponsorship program to provide monthly groceries to a handful of elderly and impoverished U.S. Holocaust survivors has grown steadily. Today, over 100 survivors are sponsored, with the potential for many more. That’s because an estimated one-third of the approximately 67,000 Holocaust survivors living here in the U.S. live in profound poverty. F-to-F’s one on one sponsorship program links each participating donor with one senior in need, and for either a $55 or a $27.50 monthly donation (for a shared sponsorship), will provide that senior with a monthly gift card to a local grocery store of their choice. Learn more or sign up here.
Family Giving
In an expansion of our regular Sponsor A Family program, Family-to-Family has linked up 90 refugee families who are recent arrivals to the U.S. with monthly sponsors. The program, launched in 2017, is an effort to help refugee families that are already in the U.S. but can’t yet support themselves. Each sponsored family is provided with a monthly grocery gift card enabling them to purchase basic grocery staples at a grocery store in their neighborhood. Recommended to our program by several national refugee resettlement agencies located in the New York City and upstate New York area, these families – fleeing violence, war and persecution – have emigrated from more than 20 countries – including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mexico, Peru, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Somalia, and Ukraine. Sponsors provide a monthly donation to Family-to-Family which allow us to purchase the grocery gift cards, and can also send “their” family other basic essentials through the mail. Our goal is to help these individuals and families, who have already endured so much, feel welcome and secure in their new country. Learn more here.
When our Orlando community partner Pauline Jackson asked for help with her annual school supplies drive, we reached out to our donors. And you responded overwhelmingly! Pauline held her giveaway “Jamboree” on August 11th, and was able to provide filled backpacks to a record 627 local children in need. She was also able to give out 225 pairs of new shoes, and gave the first 160 families to arrive a basket of food as well. Pauline wrote: “The kids had a blast! We had bounce houses, free hot-dogs, pizza and drinks. Please tell everyone thank you so much for helping to make this back to school outreach the most successful one we have ever had.”
February is a great month to purge! Our Hastings on Hudson, N.Y. office is filling up with bags of gently used kids clothes with many items almost brand new! A great way to engage your kids in giving back is to spend a few hours together going through their closets and drawers and “sharing your bounty.” If you live near any of our F-to-F sites– we have a place for you to bring your items! Email us for more info.
Family-to-Family is thrilled to welcome families referred by Westhab, Inc. – Yonkers’ largest homeless services agency – into our Sponsor A Family program. Westhab is a large not-for-profit provider of housing and social services for homeless and low-income families in Westchester County and our Sponsor A Family program will supplement a their growing food pantry program. Family-to-Family is headquartered in the town next to Yonkers, and our new relationship with Westhab will allow us to expand our reach locally, serving a greater number of our own neighbors in need. We’re starting with eight Yonkers families and will be adding more in the coming months. We’ve also been steering donations of adult and children’s clothing, children’s books, school supplies and beauty products to Westhab families. Interested in sponsoring a family? Click here.
With over 150 children from 16 communities across the U.S. enrolled in One Book At A Time, we’re thrilled to be adding even more children from a new site – The Museum School in Yonkers, N.Y. Five new OBAAT elementary school kids will receive their first book from their assigned book “buddy” this fall. OBAAT’s mission is to provide a personal connection between a donor family with enough to share and a book-loving child in need. OBAAT donors buy and send one new book every month to the child they are matched with along with a letter, providing “their” child with that wonderful feeling of book ownership. Seventy-nine percent of students at The Museum School qualify for free or reduced lunch through the National Free Lunch Program. With household budgets stretched to provide food and basic necessities, buying books is usually out of the question.
To learn more or to sponsor a child click HERE.
