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Heath: Quick turnaround.
One month. Half a million dollars. Lots of “neighbors” helped, fast.
That’s the goal of an annual campaign launched Tuesday by the Untied Way of Greater New Haven.
The agency issued a grassroots appeal for New Haveners to donate to this year’s “Neighbor To Neighbor” campaign, which supports emergency food and shelter to impoverished families and the working poor.
The campaign runs through March. United Way will get the money right into hands of social-service agencies in April, said Jennifer Heath, United Way’s incoming president and CEO.
More people need help meeting food and shelter bills than you may think. A full 45 percent of Greater New Haveners are either in poverty or “don’t make enough to make ends meet,” according to the United Way. That mean not just people who live in the city, but suburbanites, too.
And a full one in five “don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”
Sada Marshall.
Sada Marshall, a single mom raising five children, is in that spot near the end of every month, she said. She usually needs to head to a local food bank to feed her family for the final week of the month.
Marshall said she had to quit full-time work when her daughter, who’s now 10, was diagnosed with serious mental-health problems that have required 11 surgeries to date and countless therapy and doctor visits. Marshall attended the campaign announcement Tuesday at United Way’s James Street headquarters to urge people to donate.
In between caring for her family, Marshall, who is 37, said she does volunteer work, including forming an organization called “Positive Vibes Only” that held an event at which 85 women picked up tips on saving money by clipping coupons. “Not everyone that needs help is sitting on a couch all day doing nothing,” she said.
You can contribute to the campaign here. Over the past six years, the campaign has paid for 1.4 million meals, housing help for 5,000 people, emergency heating or medical or other assistance to 992 people, according to United Way. And “more than 20,000 people received services to help them avert or pull out of a crisis.”
Click on or download the above audio file to listen to Jennifer Heath discuss her mission during a recent interview on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
