Welcome to our fall 2008 newsletter! There’s a lot to tell you about what we’ve been doing over the past few months… we are excited about the ways that Family-to-Family continues to grow and improve. But first a request… Our Montrose, Arkansas community outreach coordinator, Arma Woods, is badly in need of a laptop computer in good working condition. If anyone has one to donate or is willing to purchase one to give away, it will go to The Full Gospel Church Outreach Ministry -- a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. Please email us asap (famtofamily@aol.com) if you can help.

Raising Needed Funds on eBay
Here at Family-to-Family we’re in the process of creating an online F-to-F “store” where we can organize and sell donated, gently-used, high-end, designer women’s clothing and accessories. The proceeds will provide funding for F-to-F for community site visits, holiday turkeys, emergency food costs and general operating expenses. With the economy in the shape it’s in, and with more and more people in need of help, our funding is stretched to the max. We’re looking for a few people to help with this project…someone to receive all the donated goods… someone to photograph and upload the photos to Ebay with written descriptions, and someone to ship the items when they are sold. This seems like a simple and straightforward way of raising much needed funds. If anyone’s interested in volunteering let us know. We’re not sure what to call it yet – thinking about “The Giving Closet”, or “Clothing for Good.” Other ideas?

Cyber-Sponsorship Up and Running!
Last newsletter we wrote that Family-to-Family’s new cyber-sponsorship program was ready to be launched… and we’re excited to say that it began in May and is already going strong, even without publicity of any kind. We’ve received donations and pledges for families in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York… Lemmon, South Dakota… Montrose, Arkansas… Myra, Kentucky… Thoreau, New Mexico… and for elderly Navajos in Crownpoint, New Mexico.

It works like this: After donors sign up on our website, $26.03 (PayPal takes $1.03 of that, so F-to-F actually gets $25) is deducted from their credit card every month for 12 months. The money is used to purchase groceries or food-only grocery coupons for the specific family they are sponsoring. F-to-F’s Bed-Stuy and Montrose community coordinators have set up an email protocol, so linked families can correspond via email (we’re working on setting up email in Myra as well), while Lemmon and the two Navajo communities will correspond with their sponsoring families through traditional letter writing. We’re excited about this program because it gives many individuals and families who want to sponsor a family, but who aren’t near an existing chapter and can’t start their own donating chapter, a way to help. Cyber-sponsors will also still have the option of sending the monthly drive items to “their” families, so there is still some hands-on shopping and packing involved, but to a lesser extent. Spread the word!

Victory Gardens
To help families in Appalachia's Myra, Kentucky rise out of poverty and into self-sufficiency, F-to-F and The Good People Fund have started a "Victory Garden" project to teach rural families mired in poverty how to grow their own fruits and vegetables, how to can them, and also how to farm chickens and raise pigs. Initially, five families will be mentored and supplied with seeds and chickens; after they complete a growing season they'll each receive a pig and in turn themselves mentor five more families. After piloting the program in Myra, we plan to expand to other rural communities. For communities where there isn’t someone on hand to mentor, a trained “gardener/teacher” will travel to the community to teach everything from planting to canning to raising chickens.

Seeds for Change
To keep Myra families, and eventually other communities, supplied with plenty of vegetable seeds, we’re starting a seed drive called “Seeds for Change”. Donors can purchase vegetable seeds and send them to Lois Tackett at the Manna From Heaven food pantry… who will distribute them to families. If you can help, please send seeds to:

Seeds For Change
Manna from Heaven
PO Box 43
Myra, KY 41549

Just 10 packets of seeds will give one family food for several months.

F-to-F Reluctantly Leaves Cairo
After much deliberation and some sadness, we recently ended Family-to-Family’s participation in the community of Cairo, Illinois.

As some of you might remember, our community liaison there was originally the Cairo Christian Center. Unfortunately, the founders of that organization moved away a couple of years ago. Since then we had been working with a dedicated group of people at Two Rivers Ministries, but since they often went away on missions to other parts of the country, the logistics of getting food boxes or coupons to Cairo families became difficult to manage. As a result, we felt we weren’t serving either the donating or the receiving families very well, and decided we’d do better to switch our Cairo chapters to supporting other communities. Coming to this conclusion may have taken more time than it should have, but it was a difficult decision for us to make.

There is obviously a great deal of need in many other communities, so we hope most if not all of the families that were donating to Cairo will continue with our program one way or another… Anyone wanting to go back to shipping a box of packed groceries can be linked with a family from Montrose, Arkansas. Families who want to continue with coupons can sign up for the “cyber-adoption” program on our website -- to sponsor a family from either Bed-Stuy, Thoreau, Montrose or Lemmon. If there’s anyone who has developed a relationship with a Cairo family who really wants to continue with that specific family, they are of course welcome to send a box directly to that family every month on their own.

News and Pictures From Uganda
The head of our Ugandan satellite F-to-F program – Jerome Kasekende -- writes:

“Before I left for Sudan I had sited a family of three -- a widow who had lost her husband to a heart attack and a brother she has staying with her and her 2 year old daughter. She stays in a house which was given to her by the late husband’s family but some of the family members want to send her away since the house is in a bad condition. We bought for her mosquito nets plus for the brother. We as Family-to-Family Uganda decided to help her start a business of chickens… We bought 200 chickens for her and 3 sacks of chicken feed. For one and a half months she has taken good care of them. I have sent you some of the pictures of her and the business. We as Family-to-Family Uganda would like to do more but our capacity can’t allow us…Regards, Jerome”

Click on Pictures for Larger Image

Other Community Updates
Lemmon, South Dakota
From Florence Hoff at the end of August:

“News from our area -- harvest is in full swing. We finally had a year with some moisture so hay and crops are better UNLESS you were unfortunate enough to be in the path of one of several hail storms. Here in Lemmon, most house roofs were totaled after golf ball size hail that lasted 20 minutes hit 2 weeks ago. We are currently awaiting our insurance check so we can begin repairs. Many people have big gardens in our area and they were all totaled. Guess there is always next year. We appreciate all that help our families.”

Myra, Kentucky
We recently got an email from Lois Tackett at Manna From Heaven in Myra… an email! Lois and Manna from Heaven are online for the first time ever after Family-to-Family was able to donate a computer to them. As part of the Victory Garden project (described above) Pam recently sent Lois money to buy a male pig (she already had a female)… Lois bought one and last week wrote:

“Manna from Heaven has been truly blessed and we now have 8 new baby pigs! Momma and babies are doing well. If Family-to-Family had not helped us with the purchase of the new male pig these babies would not be here. Thank you!”

Lois plans to give away the young pigs for area families to raise. Family-to-Family also purchased more baby chicks for Myra:

“The baby chicks were delivered yesterday. We were able to hand out to about 20 families. They were so appreciative. The chicks will go very far in providing meat and eggs to the community here.”

A woman who donates frequently to Manna From Heaven wrote with this update on Myra:

“School started this week in the Myra area. Last Friday was the 'Back to School Rally'. They had nearly 800 families attending and gave away about 1500 backpacks filled with school supplies. Unfortunately close to 200 children were unable to get a bag. That was a big disappointment to some children. The 'Rally' was fun with games, hotdogs, drinks, popcorn, cotton candy, prize Bingo and a raffle for over a 100 food bags. It was a grand time for all the participants.

“The Gardens are doing great and everyone has fresh veggies and some fruit to eat. Many are canning and freezing their crops for use later on. Since this year went so well, we are planning the "Community Day 2009" for the last week of April. Our goal is to give 1200 families at least 10 packets of seeds - up from 1000 families this year. We also will give out Strawberry Plants again this year. It is our hope that the families will be able to grow enough food to last them at least 6 months of the year. The Poultry Program is doing very well. We have over 100 families on the waiting list for baby chicks. Next "Community Day" we plan on giving out at least 10 baby chicks to each family on the list. We are concentrating on setting chickens - those that will brood their eggs and make more chicks. Lois has over 100 white Leghorns (a type of chicken) and she will incubate their eggs in the spring to give out. The leghorns will also provide fresh eggs for the Food pantry.

The Food Pantry is bare, but with school back in session, the kids will be served breakfast and lunch. Manna from Heaven has been accepted at some Food Banks - but Lois must pick up the Food and gas for the trips is close to $200.00. Lois's sister picked up one load which kept the Food Bank solvent for a month. And ideas or help there would be appreciated.”

Red Bird Mission
Stacia Carwell writes,

“Hi all! I have finally found a volunteer that will be assisting with the logistics of Family-to-Family on the Red Bird end. Neva Reeves will be in charge of families and their correspondence. She will be putting a note in with the next set of letters that will be going out at the end of the month. I will still be around to assist and always enjoy working with each of you, but you will basically be working with Neva from now on.

“Just a couple of things to remember as she is getting started:

• “As it has been from the beginning, Red Bird Mission is required by our auditors to open all packages that come into our possession. When something comes in for Family to Family we only open it and make sure that there is nothing broken, spilled or rotten inside. We DO NOT read any mail and a family receives EVERYTHING (with exception to the previously mentioned, damaged items) that was sent to them. Whenever possible, we try to replace any items that did arrive in broken containers with the same thing that can be found in our own food pantry.
• Please remind your families to not send money or gift cards in their boxes. I know that this is a Family to Family rule, but, as you all know, it happens sometimes when families want to go that extra mile to help.

“I know that these are things we have all talked about or had issue with at some point or another. We want to work together to make this the best experience possible for both your families and ours. You will really enjoy Neva and she has some new ways to get families to get to know one another and really wants to take the extra time to make it happen.”

Thoreau, New Mexico
Kathy Spitz, the co-director of the Eastern Navajo Child Drive and F-to-F’s community coordinator in Thoreau, New Mexico writes:

“We have discussed our families' need for improved communications. Everyone seems to be on board with physical & verbal prompts to our families on a monthly basis. Note cards & stamps will be distributed to outreach folks…”

Kathy is also going to try to create a digital slide show with photographs of each family at home, as well do interviews with families and outreach workers.

Kathy described the situation in the Navajo Nation, which, reading it over, is hard for most of us to even imagine:

“There is only hunger for those children not enrolled in boarding schools or receiving "free & reduced" breakfasts & lunches at public schools. Both the boarding & public schools are closed on weekends, so from Friday lunch until Monday breakfast, there is no guarantee of a meal for all of these kids. Let’s remember our underage infants through toddlers, our parents/guardians and grandparents who don't go to school, who can't access meals because of the same issues facing our desperately poor, destitute families in other parts of our nation: lack of transportation, fuel, money, road conditions, decent clothing to go out in "public", illness, and depression all leading to a life full of helplessness and hopelessness.

“We have families that live in literally 20’x 20’ un-insulated plywood shacks, 1-2 rooms, no utilities (there may be an extension cord strung from the one electrical meter located in the camp) a wood stove, with 4 - 7 children. Plus adults. The out-house is shared by all members of the camp. These are conditions that would not be acceptable to any of us.

“We have families that live in traditional Hogans (8 sided one room log/mud homes) with chunks of mud missing in the walls, cardboard or blankets stuffed in the windows. The wind and dirt blows under the door. The soot from the wood stove accumulates, making the air quality dirty and dangerous. That's where you raise your children, do your piecework, love your babies, take care of your elderly parents. Most of us have kitchens & bedrooms that are larger than any of these homes.”

Kathy is thrilled that so many blankets have been sent to the Navajo Child Drive from F-to-F families to give to needy families for the winter, and wants to let everyone know that many blankets that were sent directly from vendors had no sponsor names or addresses on them, so she can’t send a personal thanks…

“We don’t want our sponsors to think we are ungrateful for all their generosity.”

She says that, “Gently used clothing (sizes:0-adult), blankets, undies, socks, sweatshirts, jackets, backpacks, school supplies are high priority particularly at this time due to school & the seasonal changes: we experience harsh weather with temps dropping well below freezing most winter nights.”

Chapter News
A new chapter of donating families has opened in Coronado, California… Natalia Utrilla is the new chapter chair, and she and her group are supporting families in Montrose, Arkansas. Welcome to Family-to-Family!

Our Myra, Kentucky supporting chapter from Port Washington, led by Barbara Mazzei, has closed as a box sending chapter, but several of the donating families (including Barbara) are continuing to support their Myra families through our cyber-adoption program.

Just in time to help the rest of those Myra families… Tracey Frey of Branchville, New Jersey contacted us to say she had 14 donating families (including a soccer team) ready to start sending to whatever community needed help. We assigned her 14 Myra families, and she and her group will start shipping in October.

Our Los Gatos, California chapter (supporting Lemmon, S.D.) has switched leadership and is now being led by Margaret Kvamme.

The Commack, New York chapter, led by Laura James, has closed… (was supporting Montrose and Cairo) but for a very good reason – Laura and her husband are adopting a baby from China. Congratulations to Laura and good luck to her expanded family.

Pam’s Reflections on Her Visit to Myra
“In May, my 21 year old daughter Olivia and I made a trip to our Myra, Kentucky community – to the Manna From Heaven food pantry... an experience that I would say surely moved both of us. We were coming for "Community Day" -- a day that Lois Tackett, the community organizer and a most amazing woman, had planned for her families.

“We flew to Lexington, KY (it was the same weekend of the Kentucky Derby…which was a sharp contrast for us!), spent the night there and then started out the following morning on the 3 hour drive to Myra… leaving what later felt like the 21st century behind us. Our drive was through the Appalachian Mountains....and as we drove deeper into the mountains the poverty of the area became apparent.

“We arrived just as Lois was giving out the last of 300 day-old chickens, (which F-to-F had purchased for the community). Lois and I had been speaking for over 2 years on the phone without ever having met...and when I asked someone to find her for me...and we greeted each other...we were like long lost sisters... hugging and talking over each other in excitement.

“I can't quite find the words to describe the environment... a kind of poverty and deprivation that feels generational… old and imbedded in the culture of the community. My daughter Olivia quickly began to shoot photos... and strolled through the Manna From Heaven cinderblock building that houses this outreach program.

“After a bit...we were met by the local TV station's reporter for an interview....and then a local newspaper reporter followed us around as well.... we had made contact with the media there hoping that the exposure would bring some attention to the community!

“Then Olivia and I walked into the Manna From Heaven building…and we found ourselves quite overwhelmed by what we saw......mounds and mounds of used and donated clothing being gone through very calmly and methodically by moms, dads...the elderly...a strange and powerful sight.

“Lois and I chatted throughout the day....about what F-to-F has helped with... about what she needs... about the idea of sustainable food resources for her community… about the strip mining that is booming again in her area… and the hope that her community can be helped by that, though the toll to the environment is great.

“We stayed for about 3 hours...wandering around talking to a few of the F-to-F sponsored families... and then as the day began to end we drove back to a hotel about 10 miles out of Myra.

“Olivia and I went back and rested for a bit… then headed out for dinner at a local restaurant. We sat down ordered burgers and fries... iced tea... and Olivia turned to me and said, ‘I feel so strange with the notion that we were in Myra a few hours ago. Now we're here -- and we can order a meal... and we can leave that place... yet the families we met today can't...They can't do this... How do I reconcile that in my heart?’"

Community Profile – Washington County, Maine
Interview with Gena Norgaard
Written by MJ Territo
When I reached Gena Norgaard for our chat she had just come in from her organic garden. The quarter acre she tends provides fresh produce for families who use the Maine Seacoast Mission food pantry in Cherryfield. Over the course of the season, about 30 families per month partake of the corn, beans, peas, carrots, beets, tomatoes, and summer and winter squash that Norgaard grows. Her yield is supplemented with produce from local gardeners, who grow a row for the hungry.

In Cherryfield, families who have are generous, Norgaard says. Not only do local gardeners share their bounty, but churches and schools run food drives, as do the scouts and employees of the post office and local other businesses. But the need runs deep in Washington County. It is the poorest county in Maine and the 3rd poorest county in the nation. People have always been poor here, but what Norgaard sees now is desperation.

The traditional ways of making a living in Washington County have always been seasonal -- blueberry raking, gathering brush for reeds, and summers on fishing boats on the coast, which is about an hour away. But much of that work has disappeared, and local residents are poorly educated and ill-equipped to change their way of life. They are also unable to travel to jobs elsewhere, being too poor to afford cars and gas.

Another tremendous source of worry is the coming winter. Maine has been battered by the rise in the cost of home heating oil. Even people who can normally afford to heat their homes are concerned. The Mission, which already has a fuel assistance program, is part of a group that has been meeting to plan ahead and raise additional funds. Still, the growing sense of panic is difficult to contain.

The one undiminished resource Washington County has is its natural beauty. A growing community of retirees has settled in the area, and many of them have responded to the needs among the local population. Norgaard believes that the programs they have begun will have a positive impact on the residents. “Family-to-Family is part of that caring circle,” she says, “and there is no doubt in my mind that it makes a difference to the people who are in it.” Each month calls come in to the mission from receiving families eager to know if their boxes have arrived. Some receiving families are keen to communicate with their sending families. Others lack the habit of communication, but are no less grateful for the help.

“I love living here,” Norgaard says, “but it is a challenge to make it here.” When visiting friends in less isolated communities, she sometimes wonders what it would be like to live elsewhere. Coming back, though, she is always glad -- despite the difficulties -- to renew her commitment to enlarging the caring circle Cherryfield so desperately needs.

As always, send us your news and we’ll try to include it in our next newsletter.

Best,
Pam and the Family-to-Family team
-written & edited by Nancy Hennessee

Family-to-Family is a recognized 501(c)(3)
Our US IRS tax ID number is 57-1169066

For more information, contact Pam Koner, Family-to-Family
Tel: 914-478-0756