IT ALL ADDS UP! A Quick Look at March 2012

Food awaiting packaging Why so much emphasis on food assembly groups? Most of this charity's categories of support, such as lodging, co-pay & prescription,  travel,  pediatric needs (infant car seats and rental of electric breast pumps), as well as food supplies to stock the kitchen at UVA Hospitality House are based on receipt of funds.  Money is received and that money purchases all of the above.   BUT ... the one program which depends almost solely on multiple group participation .... AND MOSTLY KIDS ... is the full-day meal packet program to secure caregivers inside the hospital without adequate funds to sustain themselves while monitoring loved ones.  Quite frankly, without  the exceptional attention by church classes, Scout troops, School clubs, and individual families, this charity could not have sustained this vital program which allows UVA Social Workers  to identify someone in their section of the UVA Medical Center who is hungry, and feed that person. SO ... each opportunity to recognize these marvelous groups  is entered into these e-mails which are immediately placed in our blog site at http://www.interfaithsanctum.blogspot.com.  March is no exception. Just looking back over the Month 286 full-day meal packets were delivered to the Office of Social Work during the month of March. This is the highest monthly need in three years. Normal sustained monthly need has been about 200.   Throughout February  the lead group of kids for the program at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian Universalist in Charlottesville delivered their production of 282 full-day meals on March 5th. Louisa Scouts and a single family from Ivy added 149  more to top off the month.  That's a total of 431 packets!  Each packet has food items valued above $5.00.   Please read the latest notes from Tina Schweikart and Margaret Gorman below. NOW ... you can visualize how much is being produced by dedicated kids and how much is being used.  Hopefully, your personal group or family can pitch in Louisa scouts assembling food packages Notes from Louisa by Tina Schweikart On March 27th Louisa Cub Scout Pack 183 and Louisa Boy Scout Troop 3 combined their efforts and assembled full-day meal packets for the Interfaith Humanitarian Sanctum (IHS) Food Program. By working closely with Troop Master Harry Quarels, and Troop 3, cub scouts interact with older scouts forming a great bond in the community.  At the late March meeting, the boys packaged 119 complete full-day meal packets. A meal packet begins with a gallon-size zip lock bag with utensils and a diversity of food items. Each packet consists of healthy options for breakfast, lunch & dinner, as well as snacks and side dishes ~ food for an entire day! Each item is "ready to eat" or requires only hot water or a microwave to prepare. Supporting IHS and their efforts gives our cub scouts the opportunity to follow the Law of the Pack: "The Cub Scout follows Akela, the pack helps the Cub Scout grow, the Cub Scout helps the pack go, and a Cub Scout gives good will". Cub Scouts are able to give good will to the other people in our community. The boys are always very excited about bringing in the different items and picking out the components for assembling the meal packets. There is a sense of pride among them that this one thing is making a difference for someone else. The partnership with IHS continues to be a wonderful experience. The Pack will again provide this community service in October. A Note from Margaret Gorman The Cheng family delivers food to IHS storage office Last October I received an e-mail from Elaine Cheng, who lives in downtown Charlottesville. Elaine said:  "I'm looking for a way to have my children help the community. I read through some of your organization's literature and I think putting together meal packages would be a good way to get my kids involved." Fast forward to March 26, I received another note from Elaine asking where to drop off the meal packets. Project completed!   Elaine related her experience with this,  "I would like to take the kids (Alex 6 and Kate 4) when we deliver so they can help. It will help remind them why we are doing this and its effect. I have to say I did not do anything special for food shopping. I went to Krogers and just added the food item to my list. It was a lot of fun, but made my basket very, very full.  My husband and kids ran around the store finding the items we needed and loading up the cart while I did normal shopping. I asked Alex (my oldest) to write up a story and picture." On March 31 the Cheng family delivered their 30 full-day meal packets to the IHS storage office at 105 Crofton Plaza at Lake Monticello in the Palmyra area. Elaine related that this was a wonderful family endeavor. I thought I would relate this intimate experience, for it offers a opportunity to share how one family with small children can take time over many weeks, and become involved as they plan a strategy for buying, shopping  together, assembling together, and discussing the project and writing personal  notes of well wishes to recipients for each packet. Nice going ... Family Cheng!