July 2020 Newletter
A Look at the Inside!
Summer is starting out very busy at Hearts. As we continue to engage in partnerships and assisting other agencies while keeping up with the regular services that Hearts provides to the homeless population and to those within our local community, everyone is putting in their all and doing double-duty.
Hearts cook, Nor, and her volunteers are weekly meeting the task of making 360 additional sandwiches, meal bags to hold sandwiches, a beverage and dessert, plus 5 hot meals for 40 people.
200 go to the Holy Cross temporary shelter that was opened to provide housing during COVID so they would have food for their homeless guests. The remainder of the extra sandwiches go to the Buffalo Dream Center. Our support allows for the Buffalo Dream Center to focus on their outreach and not have to take valuable time to prepare food.
It feels good to help!
We are very grateful to all of our volunteers that come to help in getting all of this extra work done each week.
Joanne, Enette, and their volunteers at Hearts Harvest Food Pantry have been packing up hundreds of grocery bags to hand out to families inside and outside our immediate community. It’s been a whirlwind of food deliveries from FeedMore WNY, and bread pick-ups from Wegmans, like a revolving door, they no sooner get a food delivery, the next couple days they distribute what was dropped off, and then the cycle starts again the following week.
Our mobile food pantries have also seen large numbers of families coming through the lines. We also were able to assist FeedMore WNY by operating a few Mobile Food pantries for them on the Westside of Buffalo.
In all this busyness, we know the summer will go by very fast. So, we are finding it necessary to gear up now for the fall season. The extra meals we are currently providing to other agencies are using up our food supply. If you would like to organize a food drive or donate needed food items, listed below are our immediate needs. For a complete list of needed food items, please call or email our office at 716-877-3536; [email protected], or go to our website at www.heartsforthehomeless.org
Talk From the Street and Heart
Most of the people on the streets are so grateful for the food we bring to them each night. They have been expressing their gratitude toward Hearts Mobile Crew teams.
Our volunteer mobile crews meet homeless people that have many challenges – physically, emotionally hurting, housing issues, etc. They prayed with one woman recently who was legally blind and overwhelmed with no housing and homelessness. They did their best to show her compassion, give her food, advice, a resource sheet and pointed her in the direction to get help. Sometimes our volunteers leave feeling sad and thinking that they didn’t do enough to help.
We have been able to hand out extras to our street friends including chips, homemade cookies & brownies and even bags of apples and oranges received through the USDA Farmers to Families Program. One Wednesday evening our Mobile Crew rode down Niagara Street handing out produce boxes to people sitting out on their front porches and even handed them to people waiting for the bus.
Our mobile crews have also been distributing personal care bags with toiletries, t-shirts, sunscreen, and socks! A favored hand-out is a baggie that holds a bar of soap and razor. All of these items are donated to Hearts.
Thrift Shop News
- Customers continue to express pure gladness that we are open again.
- After being closed for a couple months, Maria in Hearts Thrift Shop observed customers saying, “We didn’t think you guys were ever going to open again!” She said the atmosphere in the store has been very peaceful. But people are asking about what is happening in the world and where God is in all that is currently happening. Staff in the thrift shop has been responding to our customers about God and what the Bible says – customers are humbled and very willing to listen.
- A customer was buying clothing for a mother and 2 boys whose apartment burned down; she only had $20 to work with. As she was checking out, she was surprised when she looked in her purse and found $50 that she didn’t know she had. She praised the Lord for the blessing.
- There have been several individuals coming to Hearts Thrift Shop desperate for help and asking for food, clothing, and in need of emotional healing. They are broken and hurting. We do our best to provide what we are able.
- Several agencies called for help to ask us to provide clothing for their clients.
Clothing Donations
The department that handles our clothing donations and pick ups of full clothing bins has also been running at 100+%. All red clothing bins are now open. We are so grateful for all of your donations. We also have a bin onsite at our outreach center at 890 Tonawanda Street; you can find the bins located in your area by going to our website at www.heartsforthehomeless.org, click on Bin Finder, put in your zip code and those in your area will appear.