Dear Friends of CAIN,
As you know, we are living and working in unprecedented times that require flexibility and determination. Thanks to your support, CAIN is up to the challenge and continues to serve an ever-growing number of our community’s most vulnerable citizens. With your help we’ve been able to shift how our services are provided focusing on feeding families and reducing exposure to the COVID-19 virus. Here are some of the things we’ve been doing:
- Distributing prepackaged bags of food including fresh produce, personal care items such as toilet paper and diapers to those who need them.
- Staff are working long hours as we’ve dramatically reduced the number of volunteers serving in our pantry and other capacities to reduce potential COVID-19 exposure to guests, volunteers and staff.
- Providing pantry staples to families experiencing homelessness served by the YWCA, Bethany House and Interfaith Hospitality Network. These families have recently been moved from group shelters to hotels for their health and well being.
- Providing 100 takeout meals to families in need each Monday through Phil’s Place Community Meal.
We need your continued support to be here for the long haul. Please consider a gift so we can continue to be here for our community in this time of crisis. We hope and pray for God’s blessings for all of you.
Yours in peace,
Melissa
Melissa Meyer – Executive Director
#1800Lives are at risk due to the COVID-19 Virus
From March 25, 2020
There are 1800 people in congregate housing at this time in Cincinnati.
We are all being ordered to maintain social distance from one another and to stay in our homes, but this is simply not possible for people experiencing homelessness or living in congregant transitional housing. For hundreds of people in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, social distancing is not even possible when sleeping. For more than a week, dozens of service provider organizations have been tele-conferencing daily to plan and take action to get people in our shelters and congregant facilities out of direct danger. It has become clear that while COVID-19 is a threat to everyone, its threat is greater to people experiencing homelessness. We are attempting to prevent disaster within our shelters and congregant housing programs and reduce greater risk to our community as whole.
The generosity of our community during the COVID-19 crisis has been incredible, and all of us at Freestore Foodbank are so grateful.
Our team is working with hundreds of local pantries and soup kitchens throughout the region to deliver food. Last week alone, we packed and distributed 900,000 pounds of food — our largest week in the history of our foodbank.
As the surge in demand for food continues, each dollar makes a difference. Every $25 you give can help provide an emergency box of food for a family. If you’re able, will you please give today?
The Freestore Foodbank is here to serve our neighbors in the tristate when they need us the most. We provide food, connection, and hope, especially during the most challenging times. As we face the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, our main priority is to keep our customers, volunteers, donors, and staff safe.
We are currently working to develop strategies and plans while meeting the community needs as we continue to monitor this rapidly evolving situation. We are following guidance from the CDC, federal, state and local agencies as well as working with the Feeding America Network of foodbanks. Our team is following the guidelines and recommendations of the CDC on the steps we can take to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Agency Listings
Ohioans for Gun Safety is a grassroots organization working to enact comprehensive background checks on gun sales in our state. Currently 20% of guns in Ohio are sold without a background check. Comprehensive background checks would require people who purchase guns at gun shows or through someone they meet online to pass background check before buying a gun. You can learn more about us at.
We are currently collecting ~133,000 signatures across Ohio to put our citizen-initiated statute before the Ohio General Assembly. Given the weather this time of year, we are looking for indoor locations to collect signatures – would there be any events coming up in the next month or so where we could collect signatures?
If your organization is hosting a community service event or ongoing service program please submit a request for volunteers with a description and contact information and we will post the need.
