Monthly Newsletter - September 2023

We are excited to share our first Ballantyne Families’ monthly newsletter with you! We hope that this new form of communication gives you digestible information that celebrates what we have done, explains what we are doing and highlights how you can help moving forward!

One of our primary goals is to educate our community that there is a real and growing food need right here in our backyard.  

As more of our teachers and counselors learn about our resources, more families are being identified.  Last year, we filled 6 pantry requests in the first 3 weeks of school.   This year, we filled 30 pantry requests in the same time period!    

Since our start in March of 2020, we have helped almost 10,000 people.  That is a lot of people who have benefited from this community’s caring and generosity.  Thank you!

As you read through this newsletter, enjoy hearing from someone who has been helped, meeting some of the people who are helping to make a difference, and finding ways in which you might be able to have a positive impact on one of your neighbors’ lives.

Together, we can do amazing things to help our neighbors in need! Thank you for your support!

Heather McAfee

heather@ballantynefamilies.org

“I wanted to send a huge thank you regarding your help this year for my family. I have been teaching at a school in the Ballantyne feeder pattern for many years and found myself going through a very rough divorce this past year. With children in the schools, we found ourselves in an unexpected living situation that required more financial strain than I was able to handle. Because of your generous support, I was able to provide for my boys as a single Mom. I also appreciate how anonymous you were and the lovely support notes in the bags each week.

The Ballantyne Family Food Pantry located at Community House Middle School underwent a remodel over the summer.  Through generous private donations via our Amazon Wish List, food drives, and $1000 donated by Food Lion we have been able to restock our shelves to prepare for our weekly food assistance. 

A big thank you to Amy Morgan and 9 Round Fitness-Ballantyne and to the Ballantyne Democrat Organization for hosting food drives this summer.  These collections helped our pantry start the school year off stocked and ready to serve our families. 

For the month of September, the kids’ ministry at Forest Hill Church Ballantyne are participating in SERVE-tember and they chose Ballantyne Families to support.  Their kids and families will be collecting food for the pantry as well as grocery gift cards. We are grateful for their support!  

If you or an organization you are a part of would like to hold a food drive, please reach out to Lauren Rosenbaum through email at lauren@ballantynefamilies.org.

Over the summer, Food Lion gave us a grant of $1,000 in gift cards.   These gift cards were used to purchase food for the pantry and helped to make sure there was food on our pantry shelves for the start of the school year.  Thank you, Food Lion!

If your company or you know of a company that would like to partner with us, please contact heather@ballantynefamilies.org.

Kerry Price Doub serves as an At-Large Member on the Ballantyne Families’ Executive and Operational Boards.  Kerry has spent countless hours behind the scenes strategizing with Ballantyne Families' and Flow Business Solutions who (pro-bono) rebranded and streamlined our messaging, she has also set the organization up on Google Workspace for Nonprofits, and often helps with the pantry and many other needs of our organization.  Ballantyne Families' is grateful for Kerry’s passion and dedication to make a difference!

October 23 - November 3rd - The community will be collecting bags of food and grocery gift cards to make holiday meals for our families in need.   Thanks in advance to Ardrey Kell High School, Elon Park Elementary, Community House Middle School NJHS, Rea Farms STEAM Academy and Brighthouse Financial for making it happen!