Ballantyne Families Helping Neighbors In Need |
Monthly Newsletter - March 2024 |
Spring break is fast approaching, and our dedicated volunteers are diligently preparing to serve our record breaking 100 identified families that attend or work in one of our 9 schools in the Ardrey Kell feeder pattern who are currently facing food insecurities. Our amazing school counselors and social worker are the bridge in our partnership to our families seeking food support. We are grateful for all they do! Brighthouse Financial has graciously donated the funds needed to serve our 100 families this spring break. We are so thankful and fortunate to partner with Brighthouse Financial in serving our neighbors in need. For Spring Break, identified families will receive a grocery gift card based on family size, a note from Ballantyne Families, beautiful encouraging notes from many groups/people within our community, a QR code to our resource guide ( https://ballantynefamilies.org/receive-help/), a bag of spring treats and a bag of food, if requested.
Volunteers will pack the bags of food on March 21st and others will make deliveries to the schools on March 22nd. Upcoming Summer Support: On April 10th, we will be sending out a SignUpGenius for the community to help support our families in need for the summer. Summer can be an extra challenging time for families dealing with food insecurities as school is out and there are no meals provided. Grocery gift cards will be purchased for every family that requests food support to help cover the entire summer. This is the same support that Ballantyne Families has provided the last four summers. This year, we need to raise a little over $45,000 for 100 identified families.
Thanks to the following generous community corporate sponsors, there is only $27,000 remaining to be raised:
· Novant Health Ballantyne Medical Center
· SunCap Property Group
· Towne Bank
· Brighthouse Financial
We need your help to spread the word and support so we can ensure no family will go hungry this summer.
Thank you so much in advance for your help and continued partnership! It is wonderful to see how our Ballantyne community continues to care and lift-up our families who are experiencing challenging times.
Heather McAfee Heather@ballantynefamilies.org
PS – Make sure to check out our website – www.ballantynefamilies.org |
Thank You from a Ballantyne Families Recipient |
“To all of you at Ballantyne Families Helping Neighbors in Need,
I and my family would like to give you a heartfelt and hearty THANK YOU to everyone at your organization for your generosity and sacrifice of time, effort, money, etc. in providing help to us during these hard times. We feel so blessed to freely receive the food gifts and gift cards you've provided to us via your community program. Every single one of you are special. Without programs like yours, many would be destitute. We all need a little help sometimes and we're glad you all have been blessed with altruistic hearts and spirits. Ten thousand thank you's doesn't seem like enough to express how grateful we are for your help and support. You have inspired us to serve others in our community too. We have begun to volunteer and give as we are able to others in the community. Warmest regards to you all.” |
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The Ballantyne Families Helping Neighbors in Need Food Pantry has been busy this month filling pantry orders and restocking with donations! We have shopped 75 times during the month of February for our families in need. Our numbers continue to increase, and we can’t say Thank You enough to all our volunteers! It takes a village to keep the food pantry running so smooth and we couldn’t do this without YOU.
Please note that we have added an extra volunteer pantry shopping slot on our sign-up genius for the remainder of the school year. This volunteer will use a prepared shopping list to choose items from the food pantry and will help deliver the final orders to the school who placed the orders. All details are listed in the sign up. If you are a new pantry shopper, we will be happy to show you the ropes at your first visit! Click here to sign up and be a part of our team!
Ballantyne Food Pantry Sign Up Genius
We really appreciate the help of a few students and their parents who visited the pantry this week during the recent teacher workday. They helped us date, sort and restock food donations. These students spent hours working through the generous donations that we have received. Thank you to Avery White, Allison and Audrey Wang and Meng Ding for your hard work and support!
Sincerely, |
Food Drives/Partnership Update |
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Food Drive:
February was a big month for food drives. Hawk Ridge and Polo Ridge Elementary schools capitalized on the month of love to encourage their families to “love your neighbor” by donating canned goods to our pantry. Jay M Robinson’s NJHS led a hugely successful food drive competition between the grades that resulted in over 1000 canned goods and snack items for the pantry.
As we enter March, we are grateful to AK sophomore Alyssa Pupo for leading a food drive at Miller Street Dance Academy and to the VT SEVA group for holding a food drive as well!
We are so thankful for all the schools and other community groups that hold food drives to keep our pantry stocked so that we can continue to fill pantry requests for our neighbors in need.
We are also grateful for partnerships we have developed with Novant Ballantyne Medical Center, Towne Bank and Carolina Referral Group Ballantyne Chapter. They are all supporting our summer campaign. Novant has also provided our pantry with 1000 reusable bags that our pantry volunteers use to pack food weekly for families.
If you are interested in holding a food drive to benefit the Ballantyne Families Pantry, please reach out to lauren@ballantynefamilies.org.
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Lauren Rosenbaum
Lauren is an incredible workhorse and invaluable resource to Ballantyne Families! She holds many hats from Assistant Director, Board Member, Food Drive Leader, grant and magazine writer, sounding board, corporate sponsor connector and everything in between!
The time, effort and love that Lauren puts into this organization is inspiring to all. She works tirelessly behind the scenes and in front to help ensure that Ballantyne Families is working to the best of its ability. She is a quiet yet mighty leader that has made a HUGE difference in Ballantyne Families!
Words can not express how grateful we are to have Lauren be a part of our group. Thank you Lauren for everything! |
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Mary Bleich - Hawk Ridge School Counselor Some facts from Mary: - 14th year at Hawk Ridge Elementary School
- 20th year as a school counselor
- Graduated from East Carolina University with my BS in Child Life and got my Masters Degree in School Counseling from Johns Hopkins.
- My entire career has been centered around working with children. Prior to working in the schools, I was an early intervention teacher in DC, as well as a Child Life Specialist on the pediatric oncology unit in Northern Virginia. My passion is helping people in crisis, teaching coping skills, and guiding those who need direction.
- I have been married for 24 years and am a proud mother to Nick (19) who is a freshman at the University of South Carolina, and Emily (17) who is a junior at Indian Land High School.
- In my spare time, I enjoy being with friends and family, long walks, listening to music and attending concerts.
- I am honored to be a part of the BFHNIN program because I enjoy helping families and making connections with others in the community.
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What’s Next- Spring Break Giving – Distribution on March 22nd
- 100 identified families will receive a grocery gift card based on family size, a bag of food from the pantry (if they request it), encouraging notes from the community and a Ballantyne Families’ resource guide. We are grateful to Brighthouse Financial for generously donating the funds to cover all the grocery gift cards!
- Summer Giving Campaign– April 10 – May 3
- This is our largest fundraising campaign of the year. We will need to raise over $45,000 to make sure that all 100 identified families receive food support for the summer. Like Spring Break, families will receive a grocery gift card based on family size. Be on the lookout to “Adopt a Family for the Summer” and help us to spread the word!
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- People Needs:
- Organized, detail oriented and technology savvy - We need help with getting our organization running as smoothly as possible. If interested, please contact Heather at heather@ballantynefamilies.org
- Marketing/Public Relations – We need expertise in looking at our entire branding to make sure that everything aligns and that we are doing everything that we should. If interested, please contact Heather at heather@ballantynefamilies.org
- People Connectors – We need people to join our grants and corporate relations team. Looking for people who are willing to look for grant opportunities with local companies and connect with different Charlotte charities who give donations to nonprofits like Ballantyne Families. You don’t have to have experience – just the willingness to try! If interested, please contact Heather at heather@ballantynefamilies.org.
- Corporate Sponsors – does your company provide help to local nonprofits? We need corporate sponsors to help with our summer food support. We estimate that we will need to raise over $45,000 to fill all the slots for the identified families. We also could use help spreading the word about our summer giving campaign. Would your company be willing to publicize our summer giving campaign through your company’s communication channels? Please email heather@ballantynefamilies.org if you have questions or think that your company could help.
- Purchase items for Spring break giving treat bags and the pantry – Amazon Wish List for items that will go in a spring break treat bag for spring break recipients and for the pantry – these items go directly to the pantry and are a BIG help! https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/WIUTGN2U4O9I
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- Thanks to the following people who volunteered this month in the food pantry: Alyssa Cowell, Amulya Deepak, Melissa Graham, Denise Oswald, Kim Pongetti, Pooja Satija, Brooke Schonfeld, Emerson Schonfeld, Dominique Greve, Susan Hicks, Sara Seamann, Andrea Whitmore, Aaron Smith and Lauren, Avery White, Allison Wang, Audrey Wang, Meng Ding and especially our amazing pantry leadership team: Erin Furey, Sheilah White and Tammy Menzel.
- Thank you to the following people/groups who made encouraging notes and decorated envelopes for our spring break giving: Charlotte Latin School, Morrison Family YMCA, Novant Health, SwimMAC Carolina, Adarsh Ananth, Jovan Abraham, Peyton Collins, Rebecca Fagan, Lauren Lee, Nate Holden, Maci Ragsdale, Annie Picklesimer, Brook Watts, Jillian Terzis, Maclaine Boitnott, Katie Picklesimer, Emma B., and Bryson along with a very special thanks to Julie White who organizes and makes this special part of Ballantyne Families happen!
- Thank you to the following people who went on grocery shopping trips for Ballantyne Families so we had enough of the right food in the pantry: Julie and Olivia White, Denise Oswald, Andrea and Dakota Davids, and Sheilah White.
- Thank you to the South Charlotte Neighbors magazine for putting us in their March edition (page 21).
- Thanks to the many people who have purchased food items for the pantry and the spring break bags through the Amazon Wish List. You have really helped to fill our pantry shelves!
- Thank you to Lance Weeden for helping to narrow down online credit card processing options for Ballantyne Families.
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