Friday, January 22, 2021
It only takes a few minutes to see that Immokalee residents Shy and her husband Christopher are wealthy. This wealth is not reflected in their bank accounts but lives comfortably in their family relationships, values, beliefs and hopes. Economically, however, this family is struggling.
Shy works as a supervisor of housekeeping at NCH and is going to school to become a registered nurse. Christopher lost his job as a bus driver with Collier County Public Schools due to the pandemic. Their two preschool-aged children are enrolled in Pathways Early Education Center in Immokalee. Pathways is helping to provide an educational start for their children. Pathways has partnered with Harry Chapin Food Bank so that families like this one don’t have to go hungry.
Shy is grateful to receive our Harry’s Helpings food kits. She loves that the food she receives from the food bank helps her provide the necessary stability for her family. Shy is not bashful to credit the food bank for helping her family, and others in the community, survive this pandemic.
For the past 20 years, the Naples Children and Education Foundation (NCEF) has raised millions of dollars through its Naples Winter Wine Festival. Next Saturday, January 30, at 7 pm, NCEF will hold its first televised fundraiser on WINK-TV. Given that one of NCEF’s strategic initiatives is reducing and eliminating hunger in our community, your food bank and our work is being featured. For those who are not in the area, be sure to watch at www.NCEFKids.com.
Both Pathways and Harry Chapin Food Bank are part of NCEF’s Blueprint Partner program, which is an endorsement of strategic initiative partners that have the greatest impact by leveraging resources, creating systems, aligning protocols and eliminating duplication. Our blueprint provides the road for families like Shy’s as well as the more than a quarter of a million people that we serve each month with nutritious food.
This week, your food bank distributed 782,117 pounds of food into our five-county footprint. Our ability to provide food to those who are hungry is only possible because so many in our community, including NCEF, have joined us in the fight to end hunger. We simply cannot do this work alone, and we are grateful that together we are the safety net for our community.
To support our efforts, please click here.
If you are looking for food, please click here.
If you are well, able, and willing to volunteer, please click here to sign up.