Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day May 20

Dear Supporter of Toco Hills Community Alliance.

Started right here in Atlanta in 2009, National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day is a holiday on May 16 to celebrate and show kindness to our neighbors and strengthen our neighborhood.

As a Gen Xer, I literally grew up watching TV shows that emphasized the importance of our neighbors, as Mr. Rogers asked us, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” and Sesame Street asked us, “Who are the many of our faith traditions that urge us to love our neighbors.

The word ‘neighbor’ itself is from the Old English and literally means ”near-dweller” – that is, those that live around us, those that make up our neighborhood, those that are in our community.

Here at Toco Hills Community Alliance, it is our mission to be Neighbors Helping Neighbors. And, despite the new housing and shopping centers going up all around us, we do have neighbors who are in need. In fact, the new housing is one of the reasons they are in need as the Atlanta region has been designated as having unaffordable housing by the Federal Reserve. Even those working, sometimes more than one job, or on a pension or disabled, after paying for housing, there is simply not enough left for food. And, I don’t need to tell you all, food is more expensive than ever, with a 10% increase in food costs in the last year!

In fact, 1 in 9 neighbors in the Atlanta region is experiencing food insecurity.

And 1 in 7 children in our region is food insecure.

A little sobering, but there is some good news in that, which is that there 8 in 9 that can help do something good for their neighbors. When you support the mission and service of THCA, you are doing something good for your neighbors by ensuring they have access to enough healthy food for their families to lead active lives. By supporting THCA, you are being a good neighbor, taking care of our neighborhood, building up community.

Your support is doing something good for our neighbors like:

You make it possible. Without your donations of funds and volunteer hours and food, we could not serve the 450+ families that come to us every week. We would not have enough… food or person power or be able to afford our van that picks up donations, our appliances that keep and cook our food, our staff to oversee all the operations.

Thank for being part of our team, for making a positive impact in our community. Let’s keep it up until all our neighbors have what they need, and especially today, let’s make sure we do something good for our neighbors!

In immense gratitude,
Rev. Dr. Lisa Heilig, Executive Director

Many high school students must have community service hours and we can take volunteers who are 14 and older to help with all of the many summer, and would be glad to have more this summer! Please go to http://bttr.im/po89m to sign up For any questions, please email us at [email protected]

If you want to donate or coordinate a drive, here are the most needed items. We are in URGENT NEED of diapers sizes 4,5,6, & 7 and baby wipes.

The foods we are most in need of are:

BOTTLED WATER
Canned Tuna/Chicken/Meat
Shelf Stable Milk - Dairy or Non-Dairy
EZ Open Cans of Soup/Stew/Chili/Pasta
Canned Vegetables
Beans
Crackers

We very much need clean used cloth and plastic shopping bags. We can also use cleaning/office supplies, such as:

Someone is available to take donations at Toco Hills Community Alliance building on Monday through Friday from 9am until noon. Drive up under the white tent and our volunteers will retrieve the items from your car.

We can now accept donations of stock! If you have stock you would like to donate to THCA, you or your broker can go to: https://donatestock.com/toco-hillscommunity-alliance-inc

Thank you all for your continued support!