July Volunteer Network Roundup!
By GO HumanityTeams in our Food Security Project (FSP) reported 52 events in July, serving 13,579 individual beneficiaries and giving out 13,579 meals! Additional GO Humanity Service Teams held 12 service events.
Year to date, that makes 106,305 individual known beneficiaries served at 481 events, and 124,711 meals/kits distributed!
New Teams
Collective Arts Development Association (CADA)
This team is in Bamenda, Cameroon, where most schools and villages have been burned down due to political instability. The situation has led to an increase in school drop-outs, displacement, youth unemployment, drug abuse, and crime. CADA’s project is to reduce these outcomes by providing life skills, art education, and social entrepreneurship development skills to youth.
Committee Of Humanists For Safe Water And Food Sustenance
This team in Zaria, Nigeria operates where people depend heavily on natural resources that are being threatened by global heating. Their mission is to help “the poorest of the poor” in communities who heavily depend on nature to survive.
In July, they cultivated soybeans. The soil in Zaria is highly favorable to the cultivation of cereals, so they’ve made the crop the backbone of their Food Security Project operations. Their goal is to eradicate protein energy malnutrition in their community, especially among children and elderly people, and to benefit the health of local animals.
They also held an awareness campaign for the Samaru community about the dangers of open defecation, the benefits of keeping water free of pollutants, and how to purify water for consumption.
Photo of the Month: Humanist Alliance Philippines International (HAPI)
HAPI has chapters all over the Philippines. The photo above comes from their Bulacan chapter’s distribution of 80 bowls of hot champorado to people in need in Malolos City. The children were very excited to have a warm snack on an otherwise chilly day, and several elderly people were served as well. The group says “Rain or shine, nothing can stop the teams of HAPI from serving the people!”
Here’s what their other chapters were up to:
- Providing spaghetti meals to 45 fourth graders for an end-of-year celebration.
- Responding to a mother’s call for help on social media asking for milk, cold medicine, and vitamins for her children.
- Giving boxes of groceries and clothes to five families (about 30 recipients). This included pet food and ingredients for a family to celebrate their child’s birthday with cake.
- Teaching a family how to protect against dengue and properly feed their pets.
- Raising awareness about plastic pollution, getting seven members to commit to actions reducing plastic waste.
- Making 30 tuna sisg rice bowls for people in need.
- Giving 27 packs of vitamins to kids to strengthen their immune systems before rainy season.
Team of the Month: Atheists Helping the Homeless, DC
AHH DC gave gently used clothing, nonperishable foods, and personal hygiene items to about 75 people. They also helped a few clients with backpacks and bags. Items were placed in trays and attendees were asked to form a line and take one of each item, a method they found very efficient.
Central Florida Mutual Aid
Volunteers from this group in Winter Park, FL picked up excess produce from a farmer’s market and distributed it to Harbor House, a domestic abuse shelter.
Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless (AHH)
Once a month, volunteers from this team hit up various Austin, TX locales to distribute food, clothes, monthly bus passes, and other essentials to those experiencing homelessness. In July, they gave out 230 bags of toiletries on a “brutally hot” day. This included lots of hand sanitizer, as they were the recipient of a literal ton of it from a generous donor, delivered on a huge pallet! The donor promised more pallets whenever the team needs them in the future.
Austin AHH said they rapidly went through 10 gallons of cold Kool-Aid at the giveaway, so they planned to buy new coolers to double their capacity for it next month.
Humanists of West Florida
This team based in Pensacola met three times in July to give out hot meals and bags of food to people experiencing homelessness. They served 48 people at each giveaway.
Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix (HSGP)
14 volunteers from this busy Arizona team met to crochet plarn sleeping mats and make cooling bandanas for people experiencing homelessness! Later, they held a blood drive collecting 25 units of blood for the Red Cross, and collected 100 children’s books for their Little Free Library that highlight science, diversity, and the environment!
HSGP said their Little Free Pantry was in high demand this month, and they ran unexpectedly low at one point. They reached out to an allied group that had previously expressed an interest in helping with supply drives, and that group showed up with cash, water, and other staples! Now they have plans to collaborate as they expand the pantry.
Olouguelemo
This team in Mali helps their community become resilient to drought and food shortages. In July, five groups of volunteers did erosion control work, building 953 meters of stone contour lines to increase the surface of arable land, and 158 half-moons to store run-off water and grow grass.
The work was carried out over 10 days with the participation of 15 people per day.
Blue Trunk Garden Network
This team in central Florida runs community gardens and shares the yields with community members in their network . In July, they also held a workshop on sustainable herbalism and helped tend to an aquaponic food garden!
360 Eats
This team in Safety Harbor, FL served about 800 nutritious meals to food insecure people, including seniors at a low-income apartment facility located in a food desert!
SociologyEats!
SociologyEats! is part of the sociology department at Texas A&M. In July, they distributed $600 in cash to students who requested help with food and living expenses.
The Food Drive
This team in Melrose, MA did 135 food rescues in July! They write:
“One third of the population of Massachusetts is currently struggling with food insecurity. This means that if you’re walking down the street or driving your car in our state, one in every three people you encounter is likely wondering where their next meal is coming from. Our neighbors should not struggle with hunger when so much good food is readily available.
“That’s why our volunteers and staff at The Food Drive are up bright and early delivering food in our community. A terrific example in Saturday mornings… before many people finish breakfast, dedicated drivers have already rescued from Shaw’s Melrose, Caffe Nero, Starbuck’s, Colette Bakery, two Dunkin Donuts, and Calareso’s Farm Stand, and delivered to multiple recipients.
“Our longest-standing Saturday recipient is the Everett Grace Food Pantry, where The Food Drive has delivered every weekend for nearly three years. Their team distributes food to thousands of people every week, and we’re proud to stand alongside them to feed our community. The way to end hunger is TOGETHER.”
CAFE Food Rescue
This team in Summit County, CO rescued 5,634 pounds of food in July! This included a lot of peaches, cherries, and tomatoes that were very ripe. They donated 2,577 pounds through their partner agencies, which include community dinners, food pantries, Meals on Wheels, and a school backpack program. According to Feeding America, the average cost of a meal in CAFE’s area is $4.92, making the value of food donated to their partners in July $10,564!
CORMII Community Development Corporation
This team in Rockingham County, North Carolina meets every Thursday to hold a curbside food distribution. In July they packed 1,082 meals!
Chania Primary School
This team in rural Kenya is responsible for a partner-driven meal program delivering a daily warm meal for every student. They served over 14,000 meals to more than 700 vulnerable kids in July with support from our Food Security Project.
Atheists United
This team held their monthly food giveaway in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown. Groceries were collected, transported, sorted, packed, and distributed to anyone who needed them. They provided 148 households with 31-pound food kits, including diapers and menstrual products where needed.
Atheists Helping the Homeless Phoenix (AHH Phoenix)
This team in Arizona does twice-monthly giveaways of essentials to people without homes. They said one event in which they teamed up with local charity Trevor’s Vision was incredibly busy, and that the synergy between their two groups is amazing.
Southeastern Virginia Atheists, Skeptics & Humanists (SEVASH)
SEVASH maintains two Little Free Pantries in the towns of Newport News and Norfolk. In June, 11 known volunteers contributed 545 pounds of food at a cost of $523. With funds from GO Humanity, they were better able to reimburse contributors and increase contribution levels.
Humanists of Tallahassee
This Florida team met four times in July to assemble and distribute snack/hygiene packs consisting of a granola bar, water, applesauce, pudding, peanut butter crackers, Vienna sausages, washcloth, soap, shampoo, deodorant, razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, period products, and socks.
They also met with Food Not Bombs each week for a dinner behind the library, where they give food (all vegan or vegetarian), coffee, water, hygiene products, and clothing to those who need it.
Kasese Humanist School (KHS)
This Food Security Project team in Uganda maintains gardens which feed their community.
In July, KHS reported everything going well at their farmlands. They harvested and prepared the grounds for fresh plantings early next month. They harvested about 1200 kgs of maize, 100 kgs of peanuts, 300 kgs of beans, plus several uncounted crates of tomatoes, eggplants, red chilis, and garden eggs.
The team said they’ve expanded their eggplant gardens on the outskirts of River Nyamwamba, and that they’re in good shape despite a dry spell. Fresh gardens are being ploughed to plant “massive” fields in different parts of one of their schools. Meanwhile, KHS’ secondary school gardening club has started planting sweet potatoes.
The team writes “We thank GO HUMANITY for the enormous support they continue to extend to our school project. Our food security needs are well catered for and the children, parents, staffs and local community are thankful for this noble cause. With science, we can progress.”
Susquehanna Valley Ethical Society
People from this Pennsylvania team volunteered at the Food Hub in Lewisburg. They assembled, packed, and sorted 72 27-pound food boxes, checked donations for freshness and safety, and stocked shelves. They also donated $200 toward the purchase of U-Haul boxes for the Food Hub.
Central Ohio United Non-Theists (COUNT)
COUNT volunteers worked their ongoing monthly shifts at The Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing and meals for families with sick children. COUNT volunteers have contributed 2,041 hours to RMH since 2013.
COUNT also served dinners and cleaned at the Van Buren Center shelter. 114 volunteers have worked 1,347.75 hours at 101 events at the Van Buren Center to date.
Neighborhood Fridge
Neighborhood Fridge runs a neighborhood fridge in Orlando! They provided 195 breakfast sandwiches and 160 pastries to unsheltered people, and did emergency food runs to three families who asked for help. Volunteers delivered 30 frozen meals, cases of water, and baby items requested by the families.
Central Florida Freethought Community
These freethinkers in Central Florida cleaned up their adopted stretch of highway!
Kenya Humanist Alliance
This team in rural Kenya says their Food Security Project farm is flourishing with castor oil plants, sweet potatoes, bananas, maize and vegetables like spinach. These crops are feeding orphans, widows, and widowers in their area.
They write: “We are grateful to the kindest donors of GO Humanity as well as the dedicated management and the board for always being supportive to our projects using regular grant disbursement to our team.”
Fanm Viktim de Kay Lako
This team operates in the tent camps of Haiti. They held a gathering called “Power of Love in Solidarity”, where they met neighbors, offered emotional support, and shared food with people who were hungry. They said the food—the Haitian favorite of diri ak sos pwa ak legim — was delicious.
Click on any of the teams above to sponsor them!
