Welcome Back!

We hope everyone had an amazing summer and are ready to kick off the school year! With the start of school right around the corner, we thought it would be a good time for an update on Helping Hands. We organized and inventoried all of our donations last week and thanks to the generosity of so many in our community, we are off to a great start to the 2012-2013 school year!  We don't have exact numbers of how many children we will be serving this year, however we are confident that 

we have enough to get through the first few weeks of school. We will continue to update this blog and our Facebook page with the needs of the program each week. Please feel free to share this page with anyone who you think might be interested in helping out! Whether you make Helping Hands a part of your weekly shopping trip or donate once in a while, every single donation counts and goes directly to kids right here in our community. Thanks so much!

We are all set for summer! Yay!

We had a great day for donations! Thanks so much to Andrew Black and MetLife for holding a food drive for Helping Hands! We now have enough to take care of all of our kids over summer school. We even have enough to start the school year in August! Thanks so much for all of your support and donations over the last several months. It's been such a blessing to see how much the people of Crystal City are willing to give! Have a great summer, and keep our Helping Hands kids in your prayers!

Summer School!!

Thanks so much for checking in!  As we close out the school year (only 3.5 days left!) we are very excited and blessed with the results of the last several months.  Since launching this program in November, our community has stepped up and provided for these children every single week!  It's been amazing to see donations flow in week afer week, and we are so blessed that we are a part of Crystal City, and that we have all decided together that we will not allow children in our community to go hungry.  Thank you! 

This Thursday, after school, we are packing bags for summer school.  Our goal (a really big goal) is to have all bags packed, for all four weeks of summer school, at the end of this week.  That's a total of 84 bags-complete with 3 meals and 2 snacks for each weekend day-at the end of this week!  We have a lot to be thankful for.  We have had many weeks where there have  been an abundance of donations, and we've been able to save those donations to use for summer school. We know that vacations, fewer kids, and many other factors may come in to lower donations during summer school.  We would love to end the regular school year knowing we have enough to provide for these kids during the month of June!  Following are some of the things we need in order to make that happen:

Ravioli
Cereal
Granola Bars
Breakfast Bars
Fruit cups
Pudding
Peanut Butter/Cheese Crackers
Tuna
Soup
Mac n Cheese
Ritz Crackers

If you would like to donate for summer school, please bring your items to Crystal City Elementary by Wednesday afternoon.

Thanks so much!!

Ready for Summer!

Only two weeks left of school!  With the end of the  year being so close, we are focusing on preparing for summer.  We are going to continue to provide for the Helping Hands kids who attend summer school, and, and our goal is to have enough by the end of the school year to provide for all four weeks of summer school-a pretty big goal!  With your help, we can end the school year knowing that we have enough.  Following are items we need in order to make that happen:

ravioli
 tuna
soup
spaghetti o's
 mac  and cheese
 granola bars
breakfast bars
 peanut butter or cheese crackers 
cereal
plastic squeezable jelly
 fruit cups.  

Donations can be dropped off at the elementary school.  Thanks so much for all you've done all year, and for helping us prepare for the next several weeks!

Closing out April

Thanks so much for checking in!  Donations over the last few weeks have been wonderful, and we have enough for all of the bags this week.  Thank you!  If you've made Helping Hands a part of your weekly shopping trips, you can drop them off at Crystal City Elementary School.  They will be needed over the last few weeks of school!  We are going to continue the program through Summer School, so any donations would be greatly appreciated!

We send home a full size jar of peanut butter and jelly once a month.  Grace Presbyterian Church is hosting a peanut butter drive this Sunday, April 29, to benefit the kids of Helping Hands.  We're so thrilled with the amazing support Grace Presbyterian has given over the last several months, and this peanut butter drive is a huge opportunity for us to stock up and continue to take care of the Helping Hands kids!  If you would like to donate, please bring your peanut butter to Grace Presbyterian Church this Sunday!

Thanks so much and have a great week!

Another amazing week!

What an amazing week!  Special thanks to the Festus-Crystal City Rotary Club for inviting us to their meeting this week.   Opportunities to share this program are such a blessing, and we appreciate the community support! 

We had a really great week in regards to donations.  Thank you so much for your generosity and for making this program such a priority.  All of the kids in the program went home with full backpacks this week, and we have enough to do the same next week.  If you've made Helping Hands a part of your weekly shopping trip, or if you're visiting us for the first time and would like to contribute, we  appreciate  your donations!  All donations can  be dropped off at Crystal City Elementary School and will be used to continue to feed Crystal City kids on the weekends.

Thanks and have a blessed week!

Have a wonderful Easter!

Thanks so much for again answering to our needs!  All of the Helping Hands kids went home with plenty of food to get them through the 4 day Easter weekend!  We can't say it enough...God has really blessed this community with caring, compassionate people who are willing to share what they have!  We are amazed each week at the generosity of this community, and so thankful for all you do.


The donations were so plentiful, we have enough for next weekend as well.  As you enjoy this Easter weekend with your families and friends, please remember the Helping Hands program and the children we serve in your prayers. Have a Blessed Easter!