June Volunteer Network Roundup!
By GO HumanityTeams in our Food Security Project (FSP) reported 52 events in June, serving 14,316 individual beneficiaries and giving out 23,011 meals!
Additional GO Humanity Service Teams held 12 service events.
Year, to date, that makes 92,486 individual known beneficiaries served at 414 events, and 79,293 meals/kits distributed!
Team of the Month: CAFE Food Rescue
This team in Summit County, CO distributed 4,670 pounds of food in June! They’re having a busy summer collecting food from local conference centers and lodges, and are expanding into collecting from local resorts.
A contractor that works with the team got certified as a food safety manager and started leading packaging at the main conference center from which they collect. She directed the packaging and distribution of 2,600 pounds of food and freed up time for CAFE Food Rescue’s director to focus on development.
The team says they were approached by a group wanting to hold a fundraiser for them in the form of a golf/bowling biathalon. Plus, they added two new board members and their founder was chosen to give a TEDx talk on September 30!
Photo of the Month: The Food Drive
Photo of the Month goes to The Food Drive in Melrose, MA! This food rescue team performed 147 recues in June. They write:
“At The Food Drive, we celebrate the arrival of the wondrous month of June. Why? Veggies of course!
“In June, Oakdale Farm and Dick’s Market Garden donate bins of gorgeous greens and summer squash at the Melrose Farmer’s Market. Volunteers from our local CSA, Farm Direct Coop, drop extra veggie boxes on our Donation Porch. And our new grocery partner, Calareso’s Farm Stand, sets aside vegetables and fruit all week long for volunteers like Sean to rescue and deliver.
“Let’s face it, food pantry shelves are well stocked with mac and cheese. But where are the fresh veggies that we all need to live healthy lives? That’s where hyperlocal, super-responsive food rescue comes in.
Fresh local produce can’t be BEET!”
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 June with support from our Food Security Project.
Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless (AHH)
Once a month, volunteers from this team hit up various Austin, TX locales to distribute food, clothes, and other essentials to those experiencing homelessness. In June, they packed 260 care bags in their storage space and gave it out the next day. To beat the heat, they included two bottles of water per bag. The team says the heat and humidity is getting increasingly worse, so they included two bottles of water per bag and distributed gallons of cold Kool-Aid, which went pretty quickly.
An amazing donor also contributed a 6-foot tall pallet of hand sanitizer that should last up to an entire year, with the promise of 6 more pallets when Austin AHH is ready for them!
360 Eats
This team in Safety Harbor, FL served about 500 nutritious meals to food insecure people, including seniors at a low-income apartment facility located in a food desert!
Olouguelemo
This team in Mali helps their community become resilient to drought and food shortages. June’s activities consisted of constructing half-moons to catch runoff water and grow grass. Volunteer workers dug five big composting ditches for organic fertilization with dry leaves and the creation of 100 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.
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 600 pounds of food at a cost of $533. With funds from GO Humanity, they were better able to reimburse contributors and increase contribution levels.
Blue Trunk Garden Network
This team in central Florida runs community gardens and shares the yields with communiy members in their network. In June, their Food Processing Brigade processed herbs and foods harvested from all the gardens of their members. They also formed an Aquaponics Brigade to lend community support to an aquaponic garden! Volunteers trimmed, clipped, and relocated plants, plus answered questions about aquaponic gardening.
CORMII Community Development Corporation
This team in Rockingham County, North Carolina meets every Thursday to hold a curbside food distribution. In June they packed 2,802 meals feeding 316 individual beneficiaries!
Atheists Helping the Homeless DC
Atheists Helping the Homeless, DC holds monthly distribution events to unsheltered people.
In June, they distributed more nonperishable food than usual: pouches of tuna or chicken, breakfast bars, and granola bars. They also distributed small backpacks, crew socks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss. About 75 clients were served, some of whom sleep at their distribution point.
Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix (HSGP)
This very busy Arizona team…
- Worked with fellow GO Team Atheists Helping the Homeless Phoenix at their bimonthly giveaway
- Assembled 25 volunteers to crochet plarn sleeping mats for people experiencing homelessness.
- Held a meeting of their “Good for Nothing!” program, which encourages civic volunteering within their community.
- Stocked their Little Free Library, which they say is seeing high demand—especially from delighted children who enjoy finding cards with art and inspiring messages placed in the books by volunteers!
- Stocked and cleaned their Little Free Pantry, which includes a refrigerator and freezer. Eight volunteers have been keeping the pantry full throughout the week with a mix of shelf-stable, non-perishable food. Plans for the pantry expansion in the fall are moving forward along with more fundraising and resource-raising.
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 145 households with food kits, diapers, and menstrual products.
SociologyEats!
SociologyEats! is part of the sociology department at Texas A&M. In June, they distributed $400 in cash to students who requested help with food and living expenses.
Humanists of Tallahassee
This Florida team met five times in June 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 met with Food Not Bombs each week for a dinner behind the library, where they serve food (all vegan or vegetarian), coffee, water, hygiene products, and clothing to those who need it.
Humanist Alliance Philippines International (HAPI)
HAPI has chapters all over the Philippines. Here’s what they were up to in June:
- A fun educational program for 86 Dumagat children! Kids received educational games, puzzles, toys, flashcards, and school supplies from various donors. Children were then served sopas (macaroni soup) as a healthy snack after playing with the toys. The children expressed great interest and were excited by the puzzles as they do not get to play with them often.
- A Diversity and Inclusion program for 16 kids who ate, read, and participated in a discussion about different cultural traditions in the Philippines.
- A Pride event where attendees learned and talked about an equality bill introduced in the Congress of the Philippines.
- A Pride march where volunteers distributed free condoms and pamphlets about HIV
- A distribution of healthy snacks and vitamins to 25 children in Bulacan
- A distribution of 170 kilos of rice to the people of Pinagbakahan.
Atheists Helping the Homeless Phoenix (AHH Phoenix)
This team in Arizona does twice-monthly giveaways of essentials to people without homes.
During one of their June giveaways, a power outage prevented them from getting into the storage unit where they keep their donated and purchased items. Luckily, their amazing team of volunteers had a few things with them (water, cookies, toilet paper, pre-packaged hygiene kits) to distribute, and they were able to provide these items for over 20 people.
Humanists of West Florida
This team based in Pensacola met twice to distribute 96 bags of non-perishable food to unhoused people. They did this at a local plaza where people gather for a hot meal provided by Food Not Bombs. Other organizations were present with clothing, toiletries, and to arrange health care.
As sometimes happens, they performed their distribution under the watchful eyes of local law enforcement. The team says some downtown businesses continue to resist this event which was started by Food Not Bombs 12 years ago. In other areas of Florida, public feedings such as theirs have been shut down. Thus far, Humanists of West Florida has been fortunate that the media exposure and resistance they are experiencing is resulting in more involvement by social service groups, not less!
Kasese Humanist School (KHS)
This Food Security Project team in Uganda maintains gardens which feed their community.
In June, they harvested 15 cartons of tomatoes, 2 sacks of dry beans, 3 sacks of garden eggs, and 2 sacks of maize. Unfortunately, one of their plantations has been badly impacted by a dry spell, resulting in a dried-up field of maize where the crop usually thrives. They are instead expanding on eggplant farming.
Central Florida Mutual Aid
Volunteers from this group in Winter Park, FL reported tending to their community fridge in June.
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 2,032 hours to RMH since 2013.
COUNT also served dinners and cleaned at the Van Buren Center shelter. 114 volunteers have worked 1,343.75 hours at 100 events at the Van Buren Center to date.
Susquehanna Valley Ethical Society (SVES)
People from this Pennsylvania team volunteered at the Food Hub in Lewisburg. They sorted and packed 60 27-pound food boxes, checked donations for freshness and safety, and stocked shelves.
MOJELIPH
MOJELIPH helps vulnerable people in Cavaillon, Haiti get food. Every month, they organize an event where they invite the most vulnerable people—especially children, elderly people, and people with disabilities—to eat with them.
Central Florida Freethought Community
These freethinkers in Central Florida cleaned up their adopted stretch of highway!
Northwestern Chicagoland Humanist Crew
This team held their own Adopt-a-Highway cleanup. It was a rainy day and only a few people could make it, but they still reported a great time!
Neighborhood Fridge
Neighborhood Fridge runs a neighborhood fridge in Orlando! They kept it stocked with donated goods including water bottles, electrolyte drinks, packaged meals, tuna, ravioli, canned soup, ramen noodles, pregnancy tests, and Plan B pills requested by unhoused community members.
A summer youth group hosted a sandwich party for the Neighborhood Fridge, making 80 sandwiches and donating 500 self-heating packaged meals!
The team also met for biweekly meal distributions, cooking 170 meals. Some were placed in the fridge and the rest were distributed to unhoused community members.
Kenya Humanist Alliance
This team in rural Kenya donated mineral water, sugar, school uniforms, and other back-to-school items to various orphans in their area. The water was especially important due to increased sunshine and a low supply of clean water in the area.
Click on any of the teams above to sponsor their work!
