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Greetings!
At
last, summer is here! Time for fun in the sun,
backyard barbecues, and enjoying our Land of
10,000 Lakes!
But for many Minnesotans,
summertime holds challenges of putting food on the
table with kids being home from school, making the
rent payment and getting by until the next
paycheck. Today, 55 percent of the families using
a food shelf to make ends meet are working
families.
This summer, Open Your Heart to
the Hungry and Homeless is providing funding for
hundreds of local food shelves through Hunger
Solutions Minnesota. In addition, we are also
helping supply fresh produce through Minnesota's
six Feeding America food banks, by providing
emergency funding for local food shelves in
crisis, emergency meal programs and support for
culturally appropriate food programs.
This statewide food assistance is possible
because of hundreds of individuals stepping up to
help by donating to Open Your Heart to the Hungry
and Homeless through their workplace giving
program. These employees appreciate the
opportunity to help others in this convenient way.
They know that helping Minnesotans with food and
shelter remains our only focus and mission for
more than 23 years.
"I see
firsthand, when I talk to employees, how concerned
they are about their fellow Minnesotans. They
appreciate the ease in which they can give
directly to Open Your Heart through workplace
giving. This remains our main way to fundraise and
it is still very cost effective," says Maureen
Driscoll, Open Your Heart's Campaign
Director.
"Our current economic
difficulties resonate across the spectrum from the
mailroom to the boardroom. We greatly appreciate
the corporate and personal value created when
employees in the workplace can invest in helping
others," adds Tom Mulhere, Open Your Heart's
Development Director.
Let us know if you
would like to add Open Your Heart to the Hungry
and Homeless as a direct choice in your workplace
giving program. It's a convenient, easy way for
individuals to do charitable giving. In these
tough economic times our donors' dollars are hard
at work providing a helping hand to families, the
young and the elderly in both rural and urban
Minnesota. Please accept our ongoing appreciation
for giving where the need is greatest.
Arna
Yetter
Executive
Director
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Agency Spotlight:
Twin
Cities Community Voice Mail
St. Paul,
Minnesota
Open Your Heart to the Hungry and
Homeless is pleased to announced a grant of $8,115
to Twin Cities Community Voice Mail for a voice
mail server, installation, data back-up system,
battery back-up, subscriber reports desktop, voice
mail security system, and rebuilding and porting
software and data.
Founded in 1994, TCCVM
helps low-income Minnesotans without phones by
providing them with free voice mail service to
assist them in finding jobs, homes, health care
and other services. It partners with more than 370
social service agencies and government programs in
the area and has served more than 50,000 clients
to date.
OYH's grant will help TCCVM
accomplish its mission of helping low-income
Minnesotans achieve self-sufficiency through
providing a communications link with the
community.
For more information, visit Twin
Cities Community Voice Mail.
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Agency Spotlight:
Life
House
Duluth,
Minnesota
Life House, which
has provided low-income, high-risk and homeless
youth in the Duluth area with access to education,
employment, health services and housing
opportunities for 17 years, has received a $10,000
grant from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and
Homeless. The money will be used for a desk,
partition walls, shelving and repairs on a
basement exit door for the organization's on-site
feeding program.
The Life House Youth
Center, for ages 14-20, and Life House Support
Services are located in the Lifeline Building,
which opened in June 2001. Through a variety of
programs and activities, Life House gives troubled
youth the things other kids might take for
granted--not only shelter but love and self-worth.
Programs range from mental health outreach to teen
parent centers to counseling for sexual assault,
among many others.
OYH is happy to be able
to grant Life House the funds to perform these
needed repairs to its facilities.
For more
information visit Life
House.
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Did You Know?
Fact
of the Month
The Minneapolis Public
Schools counted 5,500 homeless children in the
district last year.
(Source: "Homeless teen
shares her story," Minnesota Public Radio, June
11, 2009.)
Quote
of the Month:
"The ranks of the
recently unemployed are growing and adding to the
mix of people who need help feeding their
families. In Grand Rapids, the unemployment rate
is now at 16.4%. Itasca County is over 12%. It is
heartbreaking to listen to the stories of people
who have never asked for help before and always
thought they could take care of themselves." --
Sue, a blogger for Second Harvest North Central
Food Bank, April 2009.
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OYH Announces Education
Grant Recipients for 2009-2010 School
Year
Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless
has announced its list of Education Grant recipients for
the 2009-2010 school year. Fifty-two programs, in both
the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, will benefit from
grant amounts ranging from $186 to $5,689.
The
grants are used to purchase school supplies, backpacks,
uniforms, school fees, software, clothing, tutoring
materials and other necessary items to help homeless
students succeed in school.
Visit the Education
Grant page on the OYH website for the full list of
recipients.
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