SVdP Busy in July

For a lot of organizations and people July is one of those laid back lazy months best used as a transition between the post-school year busy days of June and the pre-school year busy days of August.  Besides, it's hot and it's humid and who wants to do anything is this weather!

But at St. Vincent de Paul Atlanta we're staying busy in July, just like most other months.  The summer months are often hardest for us because the level of financial support we receive drops significantly.  Summer is the hardest time of the year for us to raise money, but the need that exists doesn't decrease; and in fact it goes up.  So we continue to try and meet the requests for help with tighter financial resources and reduced levels of personnel to do the work that needs to be done  (as our staff and volunteers take some well earned vacation themselves and spend time with their families).

This July we're also doing a special fund raising event on July 27th with a group of Guitarists from Argentina who graciously offered their talents to support our work.  There are details about the concert on our main website www.svdpatl.org.

We're also holding our annual Vincentian Night at the Braves on July 16th at Turner Field.  This is our yearly gathering of Vincentians from all over Georgia who come together for fellowship and fun.  It's a great opportunity for people from all over to meet others who have committed themselves to the service of people in need.  They also get to see me and my staff sweat over a hot barbecue as we cooks hot dogs and hamburgers in the parking lot before the game.  It seems like the last two years we've had rain on the night of the game, so I'm hoping this year we'll have a dry (and cool) night!

This month we're also adding new Kroger stores to the pickup schedule for the Food Distribution Program, we're conducting Vincentian University training, and we're beginning the process of expanding our Thrift Store in Kennesaw and exploring the opening of a new Mega Thrift Store in Lawrenceville.


Yes, we're staying pretty busy in July.  And I have no doubt we'll stay pretty busy in August and September and on and on.  As my kids would say ..."That's just how we roll."  If you'd like to join us in this rewarding, fun, and sometimes crazy ride we'd love to have you!

John

This week received over 1000 pounds of frozen meat from one of the companies that donated food to us as part of our food pantry distribution program.  This meat; perfectly good, healthy, tasty, and nutritious would have been thrown away a few months ago.  Dumped into a dumpster because it had exceeded the stores sell date.  Can you imagine that!  One thousand pounds of perfectly good high protein food that could feed literally thousands of people - and without our food program it would have been trashed.

We're pretty excited about the food pantry distribution program.  It works pretty simply. We have agreements with partners stores who pull food from their shelves when it is still good, but outside the company policy on selling it.  On a regular basis (usually weekly) we send a refrigerated truck to pick up the food and we bring it back to our main warehouse and distribution center in Chamblee where have an industrial size refrigerator/freezer unit.  There it is sorted and re-packed into smaller boxes with a variety of items.  Our 38 food pantries then come in and pick up the food for distribution to people in need in their local area.  This week some of that 1000 pounds of meat (picked up in Atlanta) was redistributed as far away as Blairsville!

We are at the very edge of the capabilities of this program.  With additional refrigerated trucks and additional industrial freezer capacity we could expand the program greatly.

Imagine it.  In ONE day we received over 1000 pounds of food.  In ONE day.  That food will help maybe 3000 or 4000 people who would have been hungry without it.  All from the food we received in ONE day.  If we had the capacity to expand this program so that we could pick up 1000 pounds of food EVERY DAY what an impact we could make on hunger and need in Georgia.

Imagine it.  Make it real.

John Berry
Executive Director

Spring has Finally Come to Georgia

Spring has finally come to Georgia. The trees are bursting with new leaves and colorful flowers, reminding us that no matter how severe the winter, nothing can stop nature’s cycle of rebirth and renewal.

 

Just a few months ago, we were knee deep in ice and snow.  We wondered, “How can anything survive being buried in 6 inches of snow for 5 days?”   Yet, all the plants, trees and flowers are in bloom. How did they know to renew themselves? How did they know what to do? How did they know when it was the right time? Nature can’t contain its energy. It must become what it is meant to be.

All of my observations reminded me how much we have in common with nature. While culture has embedded spring in our human experiences, it’s the same Divine nature that has embedded change in our cells. If allowed, it can awaken, resurrect, and remind us that we are intended to live in seasons of change, ever growing toward our highest and most beautiful potential!

This potential for change is what fuels SVdP’s journey to assist those in our communities who are considered the least, the needy, the marginalized. We believe in their capacity to change.  When we give them the help and support they seek, they begin to believe they can change, too!  They feel hopeful.

So as you experience the joy and hope of spring and the renewal and resurrection of Easter, we hope you will think of the people you have helped through your connection to SVdP.  Here are a few of their stories. We appreciate you participation and assistance. We hope you will feel gratified for being part of the renewal of hope for those in need. We hope you will decide that you can do even more. Please consider donating to St. Vincent de Paul.  We wish you a happy spring and a blessed and joyous Easter!

St. Vincent de Paul impacts Poverty in Georgia by $16.9 million

Atlanta, GA–St. Vincent de Paul Atlanta (SVdP) released 2010 outcome measurement results which demonstrate the impact of their programs and services on poverty and need in North and Middle Georgia. Overall, SVdP Atlanta provided nearly $17 million in financial, material, and educational support to people in need in 2010, an increase of more than 20 percent from 2009.  The Society helped nearly 185,000 people last year, an increase of more than 5,000 people from 2009.

Even while struggling with the ability to maintain staffing and services in this difficult economy,  SVdP was able to increase its support to those in need thanks to the generosity and  increased support of its donors, dedicated volunteer service, belt tightening and cost-cutting within the operation.

Through reducing costs and increasing fundraising efforts, SVdP was able to serve more people, providing more than $8.7 million in financial assistance to people in need in Georgia. This support helped people stay in their homes, keep the electric, the gas and the water turned on, or paid other bills; thereby giving people help and offering them hope. That financial assistance and the food, clothing, furniture, household furnishings, cars, and professional services they provided had a direct economic impact on poverty and need in Georgia of nearly $17 million.

SVdP’s volunteers, numbering more than 4,000, work in 70 Conferences in 55 counties throughout North and Middle Georgia, providing financial assistance, goods and services through 38 food pantries, 10 Thrift Stores and four Family Support Centers. These volunteers gave more than 320,000 hours of service, helping nearly 185,000 people in 2010.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Atlanta empowers people, regardless of their background, ethnicity, or faith, to achieve self-sufficiency by offering financial, material, educational, and spiritual support and by collaborating with others to develop and deliver programs and services that help those in need.

Fresh and Frozen Food Distribution Program

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy New Year and offer our hope that this will be a year of wishes come true and dreams realized for you and yours.  We are excited at St. Vincent de Paul because the New Year brings with it the long awaited expansion of one of our most important and necessary programs.  With the installation of a new commercial sized refrigerator freezer at the Chamblee location, we will now be able to increase our capacity for distribution of fresh and frozen food to our 38 food pantries in North and Middle Georgia.

The story behind this program is a great lesson in how SVdP Atlanta is working with community partners and business in helping alleviate hunger and need in Georgia.  This program will allow us to increase by ten-fold and more the amount of high quality meat, protein, fruit, and vegetables that we supply to our food pantries and that they provide to people in need locally.

In early spring, Kroger approached SVdP about accepting large monthly donations of meat and other perishable foods. While we at SVdP Atlanta were excited to have the opportunity to enter into this new partnership so that we could expand the selection and nutritional quality of the food offered to the thousands of people we serve each year through its food pantries, we knew that the project would require us to acquire freezers for each of our participating SVdP local food pantries, as well as, a large industrial sized unit at our central distribution location.   We also knew that the volume of food and the logistics of getting it to the local food pantries would require us to obtain another refrigerated truck to assist with distributing the food to outlying areas.

So our team went to work and began contacting benefactors and foundations to support our efforts to raise $150,000 to kick off the program.  And today, on this first week of the New Year, I am pleased to be able to tell you that SVdP has raised more than $100,000 of that money. Through grants and gifts from the Cox Foundation, Georgia Power, The Catholic Foundation of North Georgia, the Helen & Marian Woodward Fund, the Allen Lindsey Branan Foundation and other funds raised from the SVdP’s benefiting partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s Hunger Walk/Run, we were able to purchase and install the new commercial freezer in late December 2010. 
  
The launch of the program moves SVdP closer to our vision of a new distribution model with several more facilities throughout North and Central Georgia. By collaborating with Kroger, SVdP will be able to provide as much as 20,000 lbs of perishable foods to clients each month. That is 10 tons a month, 120 tons or 240,000lbs of food each year. Our other existing partnerships with Whole Foods, Panera Bread, and Publix will add to the amount of perishable food SVdP will have available for those in need.

As we move further into 2011, we are committed to maintaining the work and programs that support our mission while we develop new and different ways to approach and manage them. We hope your new year is filled with similar opportunity and that you will continue to follow our progress and support our efforts.  


Sincerely,
John

A Lesson in the Price of Hunger

In early November the Family Support Center at St. Vincent de Paul was visited by a group of young people and teacher moderators for a Community Service project for their school.  The visit developed into one of the most interesting experiences for, not only the young people, but for the staff and those we serve.  As was noted on our website:

When the students from Wesleyan School arrived at the St. Vincent de Paul Family Support Center this morning to volunteer, they suspected they’d be sorting clothing for the Thrift Store. Little did they know, they would have a profound, life-changing experience.

Their first impression was the smell of coffee, an absolute must in every office in the morning. They noticed the smell changed as they entered the Family Support Center. They said it smelled sweet, like baked goods.

They jumped right in sorting the donated bread and pastries and moved on to stocking the Food Pantry shelves. They were surprised and shocked to see how little food there was to put on the shelves. They went about getting everything on the shelves and asked their teacher, Steve Broyles, what else they could do to help. He gathered the group together.

The group talked for a few minutes and decided to take up a collection among themselves. They came up with $150 and off they went to purchase food at the grocery store.  This provided the opportunity to practice real life family economics. They returned with several bags and cases of food. SVdP weighed the items and they weighed 112 lbs. The students immediately got busy putting the newly purchased food on the food pantry shelves.”

The article concluded with the following sentence, “With hope, the lesson will resonate with them; they will share the lesson with their friends and families, and continue to look for more ways to help.

In yesterday’s mail I received a letter and donation from one of the young people who visited in early November. 

The letter reads as follows:

I am a student at Weslyan School and I recently came to work at the food pantry with a peer group a few weeks ago.  As you may know each year our high school students participate in Serve His Day, which gives us the opportunity to serves places in the community, and those that may be less fortunate.

I am taking a health class this semester.  One of our class requirements is to do a service project.  I did a project for my neighbors, taking care of two large greyhounds while they were away visiting family on Thanksgiving.  They paid me forty dollars ($40) and I am now sending this money to you at St. Vincent de Paul to use as you see fit.    Sincerely,  - A student from the Class of 2014.

Nothing more really needs to be said.  What a profound act of generosity!  What a story of hope!  What an example from a young high school student that speaks volumes to us.

Our Vision

In the spring of 2008 the Board of Directors Of St. Vincent de Paul Atlanta met at an off-site retreat and developed a new Vision Statement for our organization.  It reads:

 

The Vision of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Atlanta is to change the face of charity by offering hope as well as help to all through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Our Vision begins; “To change the face of charity…” What’s so powerful about those few opening words is that they are so deep and broad and inclusive. They incorporate things we are familiar with, like “Don’t just give someone a fish, but teach them how to fish” yet it also allows us to dream and look to those things that have not yet been thought of.  Bobby Kennedy used to say “Some men see things as they are and ask why; I dream things that never were and say, why not?”  Our vision statement calls on us to dream things that never were and to develop ways to make them a reality.

Our Vision continues “…by offering hope as well as help to all…” There are some key concepts in these nine words.  ‘Offering’ is one.  This acknowledges that we can’t give people hope.  Hope is an internally driven emotion.  We can no more give hope to someone than we can give them any other emotion.  But what we can do is change the circumstances in which they exist through help so that they will have an opportunity to have hope.  In order to have hope you must have faith.  And in order to faith you must have love.  Love comes to those in need from us through our help.  Our help, whether it be financial, material, educational, or spiritual (our mission) is what gives people faith that things will get better. And that leads to hope.  And finally   “…to all…” acknowledges that we are here for those of all backgrounds, faiths, and ethnicities.  We serve all his people.

And our Vision concludes “… through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”   This acknowledges and celebrates our Catholic heritage and our commitment to the foundation of the Society.  It also acknowledges that it is God who directs what we do, not man.  We serve because we are called to serve and the Holy Spirit watches over and blesses our work.

We are about to begin the development of a new Strategic Plan in 2011.  That plan will help us to turn our vision into reality for the many people that we help every day here in Georgia.

John