With help from Family Promise, homeless families and those who are hungry are getting the help they need during COVID-19
Dear Friends of Family Promise,

On June 21, it will be three months since Governor Murphy issued his stay at home order to fight the coronavirus. Many low wage employees were furloughed or lost their jobs altogether. Stimulus checks were helpful but many used the money to pay May’s rent or other bills. Families are struggling. Luckily, Family Promise is able to be flexible in meeting the changing needs of homeless and at-risk families. 
The Network, New Leaf and Post Shelter Programs

As previously reported, we are placing eligible families into hotels in order to keep everyone - the family, our volunteers, and the Family Promise staff - safe. From there, families have moved into an apartment of their own or into one of our New Leaf apartments. Like many of us, the families in our programs are dealing with lots of anxiety so Luz is having many conversations to help them manage their stress. Financial literacy workshops are set to begin later this month. To date, we have distributed supplies and gift cards worth over $5,000.
Update on our work with World Central Kitchen in Englewood

On June 4, we learned the World Central Kitchen has agreed to continue funding us. We don’t know for how long since this decision is made on a week-by-week basis. This will be our fifth week. By the time this update is published, we will have served over 10,000 meals to families worth over $100,000 and still going strong! 

Most days, it takes about 20 minutes to distribute the meals. Many days, we have to turn people away. The good news is the people know we will be back the next day. The bad news is that we have to be there because families need us. 
Walk-in Dinner Program

I want to thank all of the congregations, businesses, families and others who have continued to provide the lovingly prepared food for this vital program. Your commitment and resourcefulness continue to amaze me! 

We are consistently serving between 140 and 150 meals per night to residents of the county shelter who are temporarily housed at local motels as well as members of our community who are food insecure (translation: hungry). Each night, we fill two SUVs with dinners for people in four local motels. Once the drivers leave, their colleagues get busy packing additional meals to distribute from the loading dock. 

The grateful recipients, and all of us from Family Promise, enthusiastically acknowledge the efforts of all the volunteers during these challenging times.

Stay safe everyone,

Kate
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram