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

Helping Hands has begun to prepare for the 2018-19 school year. Last year our community provided supplies to 169 children. We are in need of the following supplies this year:(Please note: this list is based on what the school requests the children have. For example, the Ticonderoga pencils are more expensive but they are easier to hold for younger children.)

BOOK BAGS
8 OZ ELMER’S SCHOOL GLUE
GLUE STICKS
#2 TICONDEROGA PENCILS
CRAYOLA WASHABLE MARKERS pack of 10
2 POCKET FOLDERS*(red, yellow, blue, green or purple)
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, purple)
COLLEGE RULED SPIRAL BOUND 1 SUBJECT NOTEBOOKS
CAP ERASERS

WIDE RULES COMPOSITIONBOOKS

BLUE OR BLACK PENS

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

School supplies may be dropped off at Helping Hands any Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 9 and 2:30. In order to prepare the supplies for distribution please have them to HHN by August 7th.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY:
We need….
Volunteers on August 7 and 8 to organize supplies for packing 9-11:30
Volunteers on August 9 to pack up the supplies 9-11:00 AM
Volunteers on August 14-15 and 16 to pass out the supplies between 9-11:30 and 1-2:30.

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. If you would like to volunteer or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me at 330-866-2005.

How were your holidays? That is the question of the recent past as we resume schedules and start the new year. Our holidays at Helping Hands were extraordinary! During the months of November and December Helping Hands THROUGH THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF OUR COMMUNITY provided (in part) the following food items to our neighbors in need:
• 5946 cans of vegetables
• 3161 cans of fruit
• 5440 pounds of fresh potatoes
• 544 jars of peanut butter
• 200 pounds of fresh cabbage
• 384 pounds of fresh carrots
• 424 pounds of fresh apples
• 144 pounds of fresh onions
• 276 turkeys
• 268 hams
Community support through donations of money, food and time provides ALL of this. When you look at what Helping Hands is able to do because of our community it is truly humbling. THANK YOU SANDY VALLEY COMMUNITY FOR CARING FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS IN NEED THROUGH HELPING HANDS NETWORK.

THANK YOU to the following local businesses, churches and individuals who supported our ANNUAL FALL FUNDRAISER. We raised $2333.23 to put toward our mission of alleviating hunger in the Sandy Valley Community.

Helping Hands is currently providing OVER 13,000 meals EVERY month to our families. We currently serve an average of 692 individuals each month in an average of 214 families. This is a 9 per cent increase over 2016.

During the first three quarters of 2017 Helping Hands provided 159,294.7 pounds of food, including 25,511.5 pounds of fresh produce. We are currently spending an average of $.06 per pound for food. As you know with any organization, there are costs of operation. We make every attempt to be frugal with our purchases and costs. We operate with an open book philosophy- if you have questions about how we spend our money- please ask!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SO GRACIOUSLY DONATED ~ YOU HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY.

Mr. and Mrs. Dan Spadafora
Mr. and Mrs. Jim France
Hohler Heating and Cooling Inc.
Smith Evergreen Nursery Inc.
Maurer Financial Services
Finnicum Hometown Agency LLC
Dr. Braden Kail
West End Pizza II LLC
Mr. Douglas Baum, Pike Township Trustee
Sparta Steel and Equipment Corp.
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Scot Bowman
Sandyville United Methodist Church
Joseph Wigfield, DDS
Mrs. Martha Porter
Mr. and Mrs. Don Harper
Cibo’s Restaurant
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Finnicum
Centenary United Methodist Church

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.