The year 2020 will be in history books as one of the most challenging years for many families and organizations throughout the world because of the pandemic. At Family Hope, we experienced miracles in the midst of families having hours cut or loss of jobs and parents teaching children online. For some of the most hurting families, they never connected their children to school during the pandemic because of the lack of internet at home. Our nation still has no idea how lockdowns and forced long distance learning have disrupted a whole generation of education. Certainly, families below the poverty line have not recovered.
In March 2020, we moved our office, and on the first day at our new location, 5757 Flewellen Oaks Ln. #303, and one hundred people stood in line to receive assistance. Since then, we have continued to help families caught between the effects from COVID and lost jobs. Because of you, Family Hope was able to serve more neighbors than ever before:
32,391 individuals served with Food
730% increase in families seeking assistance for food, rent, utilities and medical
3600+ volunteered at Family Hope
2,500 Take-Out meals served at Cross Creek Ranch
200 adults attended Parent classes and Finance classes
4 additional part-time staff were added
1,100+ children received new shoes before school
We received a three-year grant from The George Foundation for $25,000 each year through 2023 for the parent class, “Raising Highly Capable Kids,” and assistance for the community. In addition, we received our first grant from the Simon Bolivar Foundation of $25,000 to increase the sustainability of food to families in this area. This has added more food to our Food Fairs. Through our Food Fairs, pantry in our office, and take-out meals at Cross Creek Ranch, we have expanded the availability of food to our neighbors. At the peak of the pandemic, we were sponsoring six Food Fairs a month.
We are grateful that many new donors began supporting Family Hope…twice as many as last year. Family Hope’s income in 2020 increased by 85% from 2019. These are all God-miracles. Most of the financial support came from individual donors though more organizations now support Family Hope.
Another great miracle is our new staff. They like to call themselves the “A” Team. They love working together! All are part-time except me. They are dedicated and have great passion to serve our neighbors. I am so grateful for them! To help the tracking of clients, we invested into a new database program for clients called Apricot Solutions in 2020. (Both Catholic Charities and Second Mile use this database.) With our concern of COVID, we are now able to register 100% of our neighbors electronically at Food Fairs which reduces the chances of volunteers being infected by COVID as they register neighbors in their vehicles.
My thanks to the dedicated Board, Bob Patton, Chair; Pastor John Crowe, Vice-Chair; Mimi Harris, Treasurer; Erika Yelverton, and Curt Long. I appreciated your support of Family Hope and the wisdom you give in the direction for Family Hope. My goal is to form an Advisory Board to compliment your leadership by September 2021. In conclusion, 2020 was a most amazing year for Family Hope.
With Gratitude.
Dr. Dale Olson, Executive Director