Thank you to all the BocaParent readers, sponsors and contributors who participated in our quick-turnaround food drive for Boca Helping Hands. We delivered three carloads of food to the facility from Coach Roudy Derisse’s camp at Grandview Preparatory School, Miss Fran’s Early Learning Center and Karen Deerwester’s Mommy & Me class at Congregation B’Nai Torah.
The donations helped fill some bare spots on BHH’s warehouse shelves. With kids home from school for the summer, and the economy continuing to falter as food prices rise, many local families need help with groceries. Through Boca Helping Hands, qualified families can get several bags a month.
In a recent note to supporters, Executive Director James S. Gavrilos said, “One year ago, we were distributing an average of 500 pantry bags each month. Today, we are passing out nearly 1,400 bags of perishable and non-perishable groceries each month.”
Boca Helping Hands is run by a very small staff and many volunteers. Besides the food pantry, it also serves a hot lunch six days a week. No one is turned away. It also offers some job training and mentoring.
Donations have slowed for the summer and there is an urgent need for the next two months. Here’s how you can help:
Besides canned goods for the pantry, Office Manager Suzan Javizian says they also need fresh meat and vegetables to use in preparing the hot lunches. They can arrange to take leftovers from restaurants and grocery stores. (Publix and several bakeries provide an abundance of pastries, bagels and bread).
There are volunteer opportunities, as well.
Read more at BocaHelpingHands.org or call Javizian at 561-417-0913. - CHARLENE PACENTI
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Our local food pantry, Boca Helping Hands, is in dire need of canned goods this month. As we posted previously, summer donations have been really low as the demand has increased tremendously.
BocaParent.com, with some of our contributors and sponsors, are doing a quick food drive to try to help. Students and parents at Congregation B’Nai Torah’s Mommy & Me classes; Miss Fran’s Early Learning Center; and Grandview Preparatory School’s summer camp will be collecting.
These are the items most in need:
(Please donate regular sizes, no glass containers or opened or expired items) If you can help, drop off canned goods through noon July 20 at these locations:
And of course, you can drop them directly at Boca Helping Hands, 1500 NW First Ct., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
BocaParent will collect from the other sites and deliver the goods on July 20. Thank you. Every little bit helps. - CHARLENE PACENTI
Boca Helping Hands has sent out an urgent request for canned goods. Can you help? Please spread the word to your local groups. Here is the email the organization sent out Friday:
BOCA HELPING HANDS NEEDS FOOD AND YOU CAN HELP! I ask that you take a few moments and read this message in its entirety. In it, I try to explain the food distribution system…and more importantly why your assistance will be critical during these next two months. As we enter the “slow” summer months, our schedules may have slowed down…and certainly the numbers of canned food drives that sustain our inventory have slowed down…but the demand for our services continues to rise. Over the past year, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of Pantry Bags we distribute each month. One year ago, we were distributing an average of 500 Pantry Bags each month. Today, we are passing out nearly 1,400 bags of perishable and non-perishable groceries each month. With each bag weighing an average of 25 pounds, this means we need some 35,000 pounds of canned goods each and every month. While the weekly shipment we receive from the U.S.D.A. (via Feeding South Florida) certainly helps, it simply isn’t enough. In fact, the USDA system is designed to provide only 30% of each agency’s needs. The remaining 70% is to be supplied by each soup kitchen or pantry. When we drive to the warehouse of Feeding South Florida every Thursday for our USDA pick up, we have no idea what “products” we will be receiving. Some weeks, we receive canned vegetables, canned fruit, canned meats and juice. And some weeks, we receive 71 cases of pitted prunes! The process is very simple: Whatever surplus commodities the federal government is buying up…is then re-distributed to soup kitchens and food pantries. We can only get what they are giving! And some weeks, like this one…there is no USDA pick up. For a variety of reasons, on occasion, the USDA trucks don’t complete their trips to South Florida, and hence, agencies are unable to pick up their weekly allotment of government subsidized food. There might be fires in Chicago…floods in Nebraska or a work stoppage in Tuscaloosa…if the trucks can’t get through…they can’t get through! The weekly pick up from the USDA is usually filled with canned vegetable products. As we assemble those 1400 Pantry Bags each month, we add from the items that are donated directly to Boca Helping Hands from local businesses, schools and individuals. As a result, we have an ongoing need for: Soup Tomato Products Rice Dried Pasta Meat Products (Ravioli, Tuna, Chicken, Spam, et al) Canned Fruit (Please donate regular sizes, no glass containers or opened or expired items) (Pick up items next time you are at the store…buy one, get one free, and donate to BHH!) My dear colleagues…this summer, we have a critical need for the above named food items. Right now, we have little to put into the pantry bags but canned corn and oatmeal…and whatever other items we cobble together. We are therefore reaching out to you for your assistance. On your next trip to BHH…bring a canned food item from the list. You need not make a special trip to Costco to buy a case. As you do your weekly shopping, pick up another can of soup…or ravioli…or an extra bag of pasta. Get the word out to the groups in which you move…P.T.A., Church or Synagogue groups, Neighborhood Associations, etc. Are you having friends over for a summer B.B.Q.? Charge them “admission” by having them bring canned food items (from the list above). Have a “pasta” party…or a “Canned Soup” party…and have all your guests bring that particular item. Serve it as a meal and have a discussion about hunger and poverty in Boca Raton. Have some fun with it…and simultaneously spread the word about the incredible need we are meeting on a daily basis here at Boca Helping Hands. Drop off times Monday-Friday 9:00 am-4:00 pm; Saturdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm (Closed on Holidays) Boca Helping Hands, 1500 NW 1st Court, Boca Raton, FL 33432 If you have a large food drive and need assistance, please contact Suzan Javizian at 561-417-0913 x 204 or Suzan@bocahelpinghands.org With respect, James S. Gavrilos: Executive Director Boca Helping Hands
BOCA HELPING HANDS NEEDS FOOD AND YOU CAN HELP!
I ask that you take a few moments and read this message in its entirety. In it, I try to explain the food distribution system…and more importantly why your assistance will be critical during these next two months.
As we enter the “slow” summer months, our schedules may have slowed down…and certainly the numbers of canned food drives that sustain our inventory have slowed down…but the demand for our services continues to rise. Over the past year, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of Pantry Bags we distribute each month. One year ago, we were distributing an average of 500 Pantry Bags each month. Today, we are passing out nearly 1,400 bags of perishable and non-perishable groceries each month. With each bag weighing an average of 25 pounds, this means we need some 35,000 pounds of canned goods each and every month.
While the weekly shipment we receive from the U.S.D.A. (via Feeding South Florida) certainly helps, it simply isn’t enough. In fact, the USDA system is designed to provide only 30% of each agency’s needs. The remaining 70% is to be supplied by each soup kitchen or pantry. When we drive to the warehouse of Feeding South Florida every Thursday for our USDA pick up, we have no idea what “products” we will be receiving. Some weeks, we receive canned vegetables, canned fruit, canned meats and juice. And some weeks, we receive 71 cases of pitted prunes! The process is very simple: Whatever surplus commodities the federal government is buying up…is then re-distributed to soup kitchens and food pantries. We can only get what they are giving! And some weeks, like this one…there is no USDA pick up. For a variety of reasons, on occasion, the USDA trucks don’t complete their trips to South Florida, and hence, agencies are unable to pick up their weekly allotment of government subsidized food. There might be fires in Chicago…floods in Nebraska or a work stoppage in Tuscaloosa…if the trucks can’t get through…they can’t get through!
The weekly pick up from the USDA is usually filled with canned vegetable products. As we assemble those 1400 Pantry Bags each month, we add from the items that are donated directly to Boca Helping Hands from local businesses, schools and individuals.
As a result, we have an ongoing need for:
Rice
Dried Pasta
Meat Products (Ravioli, Tuna, Chicken, Spam, et al)
Canned Fruit
(Please donate regular sizes, no glass containers or opened or expired items)
(Pick up items next time you are at the store…buy one, get one free, and donate to BHH!)
My dear colleagues…this summer, we have a critical need for the above named food items. Right now, we have little to put into the pantry bags but canned corn and oatmeal…and whatever other items we cobble together. We are therefore reaching out to you for your assistance. On your next trip to BHH…bring a canned food item from the list. You need not make a special trip to Costco to buy a case. As you do your weekly shopping, pick up another can of soup…or ravioli…or an extra bag of pasta. Get the word out to the groups in which you move…P.T.A., Church or Synagogue groups, Neighborhood Associations, etc. Are you having friends over for a summer B.B.Q.? Charge them “admission” by having them bring canned food items (from the list above). Have a “pasta” party…or a “Canned Soup” party…and have all your guests bring that particular item. Serve it as a meal and have a discussion about hunger and poverty in Boca Raton. Have some fun with it…and simultaneously spread the word about the incredible need we are meeting on a daily basis here at Boca Helping Hands.
Drop off times Monday-Friday 9:00 am-4:00 pm; Saturdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
(Closed on Holidays)
Boca Helping Hands, 1500 NW 1st Court, Boca Raton, FL 33432
If you have a large food drive and need assistance, please contact Suzan Javizian at 561-417-0913 x 204 or Suzan@bocahelpinghands.org
With respect, James S. Gavrilos: Executive Director
Boca Helping Hands
Do you have time to make and deliver a few (or a few dozen) extra sandwiches?
Boca Helping Hands needs volunteers to make snacks for kids at a couple of after-school programs.
The biggest need is in West Boca, at Calvary Chapel’s new Firewall Ministries program, which offers mentoring and after-school help to middle- and high- school kids.
Boca Helping Hands’ Sandwich Program provides more than 4,300 sandwiches a month to children in low-income, after- school programs. For many, it’s the last meal they will get that day.
Freddie Christie, a BHH volunteer, says the group needs volunteers to make and deliver sandwiches of any kind for about 20 kids in the West Boca program on the first, third and fifth Tuesdays of every month; and the second and fourth Thursdays. You can commit to just once a month.
In East Boca, the organization also needs a volunteer to make sandwiches for 70 kids at Dixie Manor on the first Wednesday of each month.
If you can help, please call Christie on her cell at 954-658-7597.
To learn more about Firewall Ministries, visit its website. Read more about Boca Helping Hands.
If you have the time, this a great way to help a great many kids.
