One Way Every Day: March 21 - Sponsor A Family

Monday, March 21, 2011

March 21 - Sponsor A Family

In the fall of 2002 The New York Times ran a series of articles on poverty in the U.S. One of those articles described the township of Pembroke, Illinois, a community so poor that many houses had dirt floors and there were tires on the roofs to keep them from blowing away. After reading that article, Pam Koner, a Westchester, New York mom and entrepreneur knew she had to do something to help.

With the simple idea of linking families with more to families with less, Koner contacted an outreach worker in Pembroke and asked what was needed most. The answer was food. So Koner wrote down the names of 17 of the neediest Pembroke families, convinced 16 friends and neighbors to join her, and Family-to-Family was born. Each donating family began sending monthly boxes of food (and letters) to “their” families. 17 families soon grew to 60 . . . and after a flurry of media exposure 60 families grew to over 700 families linked to each other. Family-to-Family now serves 13 mostly forgotten, impoverished rural communities throughout the U.S.

Community based, Family-to-Family links families with "more" to families with much less. Once a month each sponsor family either prepares a box of non-perishable foods for shipment to "their" needy family, or makes a donation that allows F-to-F to buy and deliver the groceries for them.

Family-to-Family has many great programs and I have highlighted a couple of those programs in previous posts. Recently on their facebook wall, FTF posted that they have 42 families waiting for sponsors. Won't you consider sponsoring a family?

Get Involved:

Join the Family-to-Family Hunger Relief Registry and sponsor a family in need today… with their online cyber-sponsorship program.

Cyber-Sponsor Family Gift for Brooklyn Girl

With a monthly donation of $31.21*, F-to-F will:

Purchase groceries to provide 7 dinner-type meals (including fresh fruit and vegetables) and have them delivered to an outreach center for your sponsored family to pick up, or,

Provide your family with a food coupon they can use to shop at a local grocery store.

On a budget but eager to help? Join 2-for-1.

Two donors help one family in need…an affordable option. The 2-for-1 option matches two online donors (contributing $15.69 per month each) willing to help one family in need. Combined, your automatic monthly donation will provide your assigned family with enough groceries to get them through the end of the month.