Merry Christmas and many thanks for allowing us to feed more homeless children

The title on this post really represents what we need to say and that is Merry Christmas and through the generosity of so many groups of people we are reaching more and more homeless within the city of Baltimore.  It is because of you, the contributors that we have managed to grow and we still need to grow more, but let's take credit for a moment and thank ourselves.  So thank you one and all for what we have accomplished this year and here is my hope that we can double that figure next year.

Need to increase the amount of children being fed

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

As you know we have been providing food for 300 people over the weekends when schools are closed and there is not an availability of homeless children to eat.  This project started five years ago and needs to grow as the needs grow all the time.

We have another blog site which outlines our program, has a few videos and friends that support our effort.  The address of this is "feedinghomelesschildren,blogspot.org" and is currently open for your viewing.  As we enter the new school year we need to reach out again in order to get additional funding so that we can increase the number of people we service.  Please check out the blog site and if you can afford to do so follow the instructions listen therein and make a contribution today.

Thanks for your help in eliminating some of the sorrow that parents have to face each weekend when there is no food available to feed their children.

2016 Practitioners Leadership Institute Summit - sponsored by the Council for Urban Families

Yesterday, we completed a three-day leadership institute summit at the Baltimore Harbor Hotel in downtown Baltimore.  We had people at this summit from all over the United States and it was three days of intense education on our part.

We were able to meet and talk with people about how they arrange their programs, where they find their funding opportunities and because of kindness of the Council of Urban Families we were introduced to the movers and shakers of the industry who provide a multitude of services to every segment of our society.

Pam and I are considered novices with respect to these issues within our society but we were met with respect and kindness from each and every member of this group of people, of which there were many involved in fantastic projects throughout the country.  We had the opportunity to sit down and explain our weekend backpack "survival" kit to so many people and were requested to contact them again and keep in contact with them.

We are getting recognized as an example of what can be accomplished if people simply want to do something positive for their society and people are now considering utilizing the information that we have developed during these last five years to introduce these backpacks in their communities.

The people at the Council for Urban Families could not have been kinder to us during our training and learning experience and the work that they are doing in the community has received acknowledgement from President Obama.  It was a privilege for us to attend and learn so much more and we plan on using what we have learned to ensure the growth of our program so that no homeless child goes hungry.

So in closing, we have developed a new slogan, "HAVE BACKPACK WILL TRAVEL".

Success at the B'more Healthy Expo

I am pleased to report that last Saturday we had a very successful day at the "B'more Healthy Expo". With our staff of volunteers we were able to get set up in time for all of the activities that took place and met so many wonderful people.  We talked with the Boys Scouts of America who advised us that they would be in contact with us about our "Adopt-a-School" program where an organization can adopt a school within their area and provide food to the homeless population based on our program.
This means that after a short period of time learning how we prepare the backpacks and the food that is placed therein, along with introducing the organization to the schools, they can start their own program.  This allows us to get food to other areas that are not being serviced.  We met with a Financial Adviser who wants to get his company involved in the program, thus getting us additional funding to further the program.

We met with so many people that want to be a part of this program and have  learned so much from our interactions with others that we are so pleased that we had this opportunity to spread the word far and wide as the need is great in our State.

We have been introduced to others who are now actively assisting us in getting further training about how to proceed our program in the future, which means that we will be able to assist others.  One of the things that I have learned during the time that we have been providing food for the homeless children of this city is that people want to help and will help when called upon.  I have seen poor people make contributions of $1 and $5 and do it with a smile on their face which encourages us to continue this program.

Our personal thanks to Dottie Campbell, Edwin Hopkins and John Shaia our volunteers for the day and for their assistance to make the exposition time at the Convention Center in Baltimore a great day.

B'more Healthy Expo - come and visit us

Next Saturday, March 19, 2016, from 10 am to 5 pm we will have a booth at the "B'more Healthy Expo" at the Convention Center in Baltimore City.  Our listing will be Heart's Place Services, Inc., and we will be in the Family Court.

Come on down and let us hear your thoughts about childhood hunger and let us tell you about our exciting new plan to make sure no homeless child goes hungry over the weekends through our "Adopt a school" program.  Any church, and Baltimore City has many, many churches can adopt any one of the public schools to provide these homeless children with food each weekend for themselves and their family.  Our weekend backpacks, or survival kits are made in such a manner as to feed the entire family over the weekend where no refrigeration or heating is available.  We also make sure that the family gets tooth brushes and paste, along with a few goodies just the make the weekend a little better.

Come and sign our petition to the Governor requesting additional funding for this program and to insure that all homeless children eat over the weekend.  Write a note to one of the many children we service and show them that people do care.  Pick up some of our literature and sign our form to sign up your church to "Adopt a school" program.  We are a small group of people who really care for all of the homeless children in this city and we don't ever want to see a homeless child ever go hungry over the weekend.  We are not paid volunteers, but just want to make the city a little better for these families.  Thanks!!!!

Adopt-a-school

Despite our efforts to continually grow our weekend backpack (survival kit) program which feeds a family of three people, we have not been successful to the degree we need to be in feeding the number of homeless children and their families within the City of Baltimore.  A few thousand of these children and their families go hungry each and every weekend.

Believe me, we have stood before the City Council, met with the Deputy Director of the City, sat with the Homeless Director and argued the need for funding for this program to no avail.  While we worked on getting a $50,000 grant to be able to address this dire need, at the last moment it fell through and the City did not come up with what we thought we would obtain.  Attempts to get funding from foundations have fallen on deaf ears and there appears to be other causes that were considered more important than feeding homeless children who have no access to food over the weekend.  We met with One Baltimore, written letters to our elected officials and attempted to meet with the State's Department on Homeless issues and the individual who was supposed to meet with us didn't show up for the meeting and didn't have the courtesy to even contact us back and advise us why.  There has been no lack of due diligence on our part in our attempts to collect additional funding for this project and we have over the last five years managed to obtain excess of $100,000 by ourselves to fight this condition in the city.  In a City that can approve creating a tribute to "DIVINE", argue about spending, I believe $43,000,000 on McKeldon park, giving millions of dollars in TIF's to developers, feeding thousands of children who are homeless appears to be a difficult task to accomplish.  If we were successful in accomplishing our goal, we could feed all of the current homeless at an annual cost of $2,700,000, which is nothing in the savings it would mean to the City 10/20 years in the future.

With this in mind, we believe that it is now up to us and our community religious organizations and clubs to pick up where we have not achieved our goals.  Therefore, we have created an idea that has been used in other issues and that is "Adopt-a-School".  Of all of the schools in the City there are many churches and groups that meet in areas where there is a school and most schools, if not all, have a homeless population.  These churches and clubs can simply find out the number of homeless students within the individual schools and make arrangements to adopt them and the homeless population for one school year.  You have to remember if you follow this, that you have to continue the program throughout the school year and it can involve 1 child through any number of children.  We have a formula on what is needed to be given in each backpack and it follows U.S.D.A. guidelines for good nutrition and needed calories.  We can assist you in meeting with the schools and presenting the program to the Principal of the particular school and we can answer all and any of your questions about the program.  We will be at the "B'more Healthy Expo" at the Convention on March 19, 2016, which is free to all people who attend and we are listed under "Heart's Place Services, Inc." and ready to assist you as much as we can.  FOX was kind enough in assisting us in getting us a booth at the convention and please drop by and say hello and learn more about our program.  If you bring your children, let them write a letter to one of the children who are involved in our program so that they can be delivered to all of the schools that we handle.

Under our "Adopt-a-School" idea we need to feed 2600 children and their families in this city of ours and we can do it, if we work one school at a time.