126 S. Main Street, PO Box 595, Waynesburg, Ohio 44688

Feeding America designates September as Hunger Action Month! Feeding America partners with the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank to provide low cost/free food to food pantries in our area- including Helping Hands Network. In the past Helping Hands has held a Hike for Hunger in September. This year we have decided to forego the hike for an annual fundraising month coinciding with the hunger awareness nationwide.
Food Insecurity in alive and well in Ohio. Ohio ranks as the 6th highest food insecure state in the nation according to a study by Feeding America. Children and adults face hunger in every neighborhood, including ours. Your neighbor, coworker or your child’s classmate may be among the food insecure.
Helping Hands Network provides a generous five day supply of food to any of our neighbors who qualify according to income guidelines set forth by the USDA. In order to meet this need we must purchase food, transport food, store food, account for the help we provide, maintain our building and pay other operational costs (heat, phone, water etc). In 2016, Helping Hands helped an average of 666 individuals each month, so far in 2017 our average is 682. We receive $450 per month from Stark County Hunger Task Force to spend on food at the Food Bank, ALL other expenses are covered by LOCAL donations.
Please consider supporting our annual fund drive. Through your generosity we can continue to give a HELPING HAND to our neighbors in need.

Checks may be made payable to “Helping Hands Network” and mailed to PO Box 595, Waynesburg, OH 44688.

Thank you for your support!

School is now in session and 165 children are sitting in a classroom ready to learn because of you! Thank you to EVERYONE who donated supplies! Special thanks goes out to the lovely ladies of Living Water Fellowship: Diane, Dorothy, Elaine, Shelby, and Karla along with community volunteers, Danny and Kaitlynn. They packed up ALL the bags of supplies for the children. Thank you to our volunteers who passed out the supplies to the families: Carole, Martha, Bob, and Ali. We have some extra supplies left which we will be taking to the schools in the next several weeks. Thanks once again to EVERYONE who helped us get the school year off to a great start!!!

Once again the gardening season is upon us and as we are impatiently waiting on homegrown tomatoes, I invite you to consider donating any abundance you may have to Helping Hands. Our families may shop once per month for food and may come in for bread every week if they choose. We have recently added fresh produce to this weekly distribution. We hope this will help our families even more!
Fresh produce is the most nutrient dense form of vegetables and fruit, so we are particularly excited to be able to provide it on an ongoing basis!
You may drop off any abundance to us during regular business hours- T-W-TH 9:00 to 2:30 at 126 S Main St Waynesburg. ALL donations, no matter how big or small, are appreciated and will go toward feeding those in our community who are food insecure. Thank you as always for your tremendous support!!! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us at 330-866-2005!

I ran across this article in The Reader’s Digest called “The Gift of Food”.  I copied it and had everyone at HHN read it.  We thought maybe you would enjoy it too.

There are those in our culture who subscribe to the notion that the only people who come to a food pantry are those that are looking for a handout.  We here at HHN can tell you otherwise.  This article focuses on that.  I invite you to be open to the fact that we do not always know the entire circumstances of someone else’s situation.  Before we jump on the judgment train,  let us remember that we too could find ourselves in need.  Thank goodness there are those in our community who heed the call to help others.  If you have never worried about where your next meal will come from consider how fortunate you are and remember there but for the grace of God…

Follow the link below to the article “The Gift of Food”.

This Woman’s Innocent Comment About Food Donations Says a Lot About Poverty in America

Helping Hands Network is collecting bags of individually wrapped Easter Candy for area children.  If you would like to donate a bag or two please drop your candy off to Helping Hands at 126 S. Main St., Waynesburg between 9-11:30 AM or 1:00-2:30 PM any Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between now and March 30.  The candy will be packaged by students from Sandy Valley High School and distributed to local children.  Thank you for your generous support.

Helping Hands is very pleased to present an informational video about our operation.  Andrew Anthony of Down the Road Productions spent a day filming our operation at HHN and the Akron Canton FoodBank.  If you have ever wondered about how it all occurs at Helping Hands,  I invite you to take a look.   We are so proud of our volunteers who give of their time and energy to carry out our mission to alleviate hunger in the Sandy Valley area.   Thank you Andrew and Down the Road Productions for your excellent work!  We hope you enjoy our video!!

To view the video, follow the link below:

https://youtu.be/3UCyS-XrZ7E

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2016!

2016 at Helping Hands has been our busiest year ever!  I would like to share some of the highlights of our year…..

• Our food pantry provided food to an average of 660 individuals per month in 2016.  This is 113 per month more than our 2015 average!!  Our highest month was November with 815 served. The average number of children each month in 2016 was 209.
• We distributed 186,765.91 pounds of food in 2016!  This figure includes 25,912 pounds of fresh produce.  We spent $48 of HHN money on food, both at the Food Bank and local retailers.  Our cost per pound was $.08 (this amount factors in the $450 we receive each month from Stark County Hunger Task Force)
• Helping Hands continues to strive to offer a variety of nutritious food to our neighbors in need and gently used clothing to anyone who wants to come and shop!  We also organized giveaways of Easter Candy, School Supplies and Christmas presents for our children.
• Student volunteers from SVHS  bagged our donated Easter candy and we passed it out to 125 area children.  School supplies provided by our community were given to 126 children and extra supplies were taken to SV schools and St James School.  236 children received Christmas presents given by our community.
• Helping Hands applied for and received a $10,000 grant from the Deuble Foundation towards the purchase of a new-to-us truck.  The truck was purchased from Sarchione Ford and replaced our VERY used 2003 Ford van, which had over 265,000 miles on it and was becoming unsafe for our drivers to drive due to rust and wear. covered the cost of the “new to us” truckWe can now transport a larger quantity of food in a much safer vehicle. The larger van has enabled us to cut down on the number of trips we make to the Food Bank in Akron as we can transport so much more food.
• Helping Hands receives an annual inspection from the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank.  This inspection involves evaluating our food storage areas, record keeping and overall operation of the food program.  We had our 2016 inspection on May 26 and were found to be in 100% compliance.  This is due to the tremendous work of our volunteers who work daily to make our food pantry the best it can be!
• HHN has 29 volunteers who make this all happen.  If you would like to be part of our team- please contact me! We can always use the help!!

Our center could not continue to exist without the support of our community.  We strive to be excellent financial stewards of the support entrusted to us.  Should you ever have questions about our operation or financial records, please do not hesitate to contact me as our records are open for your review.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR BLESSING US THIS PAST YEAR WITH YOUR SUPPORT.

As we begin thinking about the upcoming Holiday season often times making donations comes to mind.  I would like to invite you to consider Helping Hands Network as your recipient this year.  For every dollar donated to HHN we can provide approximately 12 meals. Our families receive healthy, nutritious food which includes fresh fruits and vegetables.

Having adequate funding enables us to purchase the lowest cost food when it is available from the food bank.  We have been very successful in dropping our cost per pound of food from 27 cents in 2014 to 6.6 cents currently.  This means that we are able to provide more for our neighbors.  Here is a list of what a family of four would be eligible to choose from our shelves:

• 24 oz ranch salad dressing
• 12 oz mustard
• 6 oz coffee
• 64 oz grapefruit juice
• 10 -15 oz can vegetables
• 3-15 oz can fruits
• 2-10 oz can soup
• 1 # box crackers
• 2- 15 oz spaghetti sauce
• 2- 15 oz can beans
• 4 boxes of macaroni and cheese
• 1# bag egg noodles
• 1# spaghetti
• 1# elbow pasta
• 2# pinto beans
• 3-1# boxes cereal
• 24 oz can beef stew
• 15 oz jar peanut butter
• 12 oz jar jelly
• 5 cans of canned pasta
• 18 oz jar peanut butter and jelly
• 26 oz can chicken broth
• croutons
• 5 oz can of chicken
• 24 oz box shelf stable milk
• package of cookies
• a bottle of Gatorade for everyone in the family
• bag  of sunflower seeds
• 12 oz bag of chips
• 1 doz. eggs
• 10 # bag of potatoes
• 5# bag of apples
• 1# ham lunchmeat
• 8 oz shredded cheese
• tomatoes
• onions
• 1 # hot dogs
• gnocchi frozen meal
• 12 cinnamon rolls
• 2# frozen blueberries
• 2-1/2 # ham slices
• bread

This is approximately 75 pounds of food- which we provide for $4.95.   For comparison…. the retail value would be in the $192.75 range.

Helping Hands is most grateful for our supportive community!  We strive to be excellent financial stewards of all donations entrusted to us.   If you ever have any questions about our financial records, please do not hesitate to contact me- our records are always open for your review.  Thank you for considering Helping Hands when choosing an organization to donate to!!

YOUR HANDS- HELPING OUR HANDS- HELP MORE

WE HAVE A NEW VAN!!!

Helping Hands is pleased to announce we have replaced our VERY used 2003 Ford Van with a not so used 2008 Ford Box Truck, purchased from Sarchione Ford. Our old van had over 265,000 miles on it and was becoming unsafe for our drivers to drive due to rust and wear.

Helping Hands received a $10,000 grant from the Deuble Foundation towards the purchase of our new truck. This along with the donations raised in the Boot and Bucket Drive held last November covered the cost of the “new to us” truck.

We can now transport a larger quantity of food in a much safer vehicle. The larger van has enabled us to cut down on the number of trips we make to the Food Bank in Akron as we can transport so much more food.

Helping Hands would like to thank Joy France, Nick and Marissa Lautzenheiser and Malia Miller for their help in writing the grant, the Deuble Foundation for the grant and Tony Luther for donating the signs for the van doors. We are so thankful to have a safe vehicle for our volunteer drivers and a vehicle large enough to meet our needs.

HHN Board of Directors celebrate the purchase of a new truck. L-R: Jim France, Fred Gordon, Sonny Halter, Jim Finnicum, Lovina Riggs, Jennifer Crone, Elizabeth Manson and Doug Prevosto. Absent is Harold Farber.

Helping Hands is preparing for the upcoming school year.  I know it is hard to believe we must think about school supplies when summer is just getting underway but here we are 🙂   Last year we provided supplies to 143 children.  We anticipate somewhat higher numbers this year as we are experiencing a 33 % increase in numbers through the first 6 months of 2016.  We have inventoried our leftover supplies and I have attached a list of supplies we are in need of.  I hope that it is convenient for you to copy it and provide it to anyone who might want to have a reference to take shopping.   

School supplies may be dropped off at Helping Hands any T-W or TH between 9 and 2:30.  In order to prepare the supplies for distribution please have them to HHN by August 9th. 

We are also in need of volunteers to pack up the school supply bags on August 11, 2016 starting at 9 AM.  This usually only takes a couple of hours so it is a great opportunity to volunteer! 

As always, we are SO APPRECIATIIVE of the generous support from our community.  Thank you for helping our children prepare for learning this school year.  Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me at 330-866-2005.

BOOK BAGS

8 OZ ELMER’S SCHOOL GLUE

GLUE STICKS*

KLEENEX

PLASTIC SCHOOL BOXES

CRAYOLA WATER COLORS

2 POCKET FOLDERS*(red, yellow, blue, green)

YELLOW HIGHLIGHTERS*

FISKAR TYPE SCHOOL SCISSORS

LARGE PINK ERASERS

ZIPPER PENCIL POUCH*

WIDE RULED LOOSE LEAF PAPER*

COLLEGE RULED LOOSE LEAF PAPER*

UNLINED INDEX CARDS

12 PACK CRAYOLA COLORED PENCILS

WIDE RULED SPIRAL BOUND 1 SUBJECT NOTEBOOKS (red, yellow, blue, green)

COLLEGE RULED SPIRAL BOUND 1 SUBJECT NOTEBOOKS*

CAP ERASERS

HAND HELD PENCIL SHARPENERS

WE ARE ALSO IN NEED OF BROWN PAPER GROCERY BAGS TO PACK THE SUPPLIES IN

* these items are most needed