• On Saturday, Sept. 1st, there will be a food drive at a New Britain Rockcats game. To get in, tickets are $6 and a portion of each ticket goes to MACC! There will be a post-game fireworks show and it begins at 7:00 pm. Bring some non-perishable food items and enjoy a night of fun for the whole family! For more info, visit The Birthday Club.
• On Saturday Sept. 8th, there is going to be a Zumba-thon! For those of you who enjoy Zumba or want to learn more, this is going to be a benefit class that begins at 10 am. The cost is $10 in advance and $15 at the door, with a portion of the proceeds going to the MACC Pantry. The location is at 374 Tolland Tpke., Vernon. For more information, please email Anelmy at anelmy@sbcglobal.net. 
• The Hebron Renaissance Faire is going to be kicking off on Sept. 29th and running on each weekend until October 28th. We have a table near the entrance to collect financial and food donations but we need volunteers to help run it! The hours are from 11am-6pm. To volunteer at this event, email maccserves@gmail.com
• Burton’s Wine Dinner: on Sept 16th at 6pm, Burton’s is hosting a wine dinner for $100 per person with a significant portion of the cost to go directly to MACC. The food a drink promise to be incredible, so be sure to reserve a seat before they sell out! 

Mark these dates and, as always, email us if you have any questions: maccserves@gmail.com

The front text on the box talks about the $11 a week it takes to feed a family of four and the need for communities to come together to help other families who might not be able to afford their own groceries and meals. If you can hit $11 a week as a family, great! If not, you need to remember that no donation is too small.

One of our shelter guests was recently telling us that he never walks by a penny. “Some people tell me, ‘It’s just a penny’, but I always say that a hundred pennies is a buck!” It’s true.

If you didn’t get a box at Summerstock, our office is packed with them! You can pick a bunch up for you, your neighborhood, your MOPS group, your church, or your school. We can also mail them to you if you are unable to come by our location.

The name FAMILY4FAMILY is important because we believe that one family who has $11 a week can help a family who doesn’t have it. It also came from the Allstate commercial which says, “Dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like Allstate.” We thought, “Family for family, nothing protects our community from poverty like unity.”

The forecast called for rain the entire week leading up to the event but Saturday ended up being warm, sunny and beautiful! Enjoy this 5-minute video from the event:

Our volunteers were simply amazing and represented a variety of local churches and community groups. Many came early and stayed late, working as a team to make sure the event was a success from beginning to end.

The band who joined us, The Dale Project, did a fantastic job and created a fun atmosphere for balloon tossing and face painting. We saw lots of guests enjoying the ice cream donated by Highland Park Market and the popcorn and cotton candy run by volunteers.

Families got to stock our shelves together and many people brought generous donations of food to help fill our shelves for these remaining Summer months.

In summary, this event was a blast and we are deeply grateful to every business, individual and family that supported, volunteered, and attended our event.

Enjoy the video and feel free to share it as much as you want!

We’ll also post it on Facebook.

Then I heard my name. It sounded familiar, though I couldn’t place the voice. A client stepped closer and I recognized her face as she said, “I used to work under you, as a CNA.”

That was a tough moment. I never really expected to see someone I recognized — let alone used to manage in a professional environment — walk up to me as a client in a shelter for homeless individuals. It wasn’t a moment of judgement, it was a moment of stark contrast between the world of delusion and the world of reality.

There are painful and dehumanizing stereotypes around homelessness. Many people never get beyond the word “Bum” and the implications of a bottom-feeding, withering soul; a body passing most days inebriated or in a coma. Yet, here was a living and breathing example that shattered every stereotype about the poor. The reality is that life hit someone I knew – hard – and now she was working her way up.

Some people assume that the homeless are a group of aimless wanderers with no interest or  desire to return to a state of normalcy, that somehow there is a sadistic joy that flourishes under pervasive loneliness, hurt, and fear. Reality proved this wrong again. Within a few short months, I was contacted by this client and once employee. She had received the necessary treatment that allowed her to return to housing and was proudly an employed citizen. She hasn’t been back to a shelter since.

Our words hold too much weight to throw around damaging terms. Our thoughts, when allowed to run without restraint, can quickly develop false concepts around the homeless. We pick up on stereotypes from the media, or from a personal experience that reinforced a pre-existing negative label. Our goal at MACC is to break through these and reveal that we are dealing with people…not “hobos”, not “bums”, not “them”.

This is about “us”. This is about community because it takes everyone linking arms to break through misconceptions and restore human dignity to an outcast and overlooked population. Donating is helpful, volunteering is good, but changing your thoughts and ideas and becoming an advocate for the poor is even better.

Join us.

- A MACC Staff Member

This past week, the Olympic stadium in London thundered with applause as an injured hurdler decided to finish the race. He kissed the last hurdle, crossed the finish line and hobbled into the embrace and support of other Olympic athletes. The moment of defeat became an iconic victory that will be remembered for generations.

Victory is not always about winning gold, sometimes it is about rising from the ashes to meet the goal amidst searing pain. The thing to keep in mind is that these types of victories are not accomplished alone. This athlete probably would have simply walked away from the goal if there was no cheering crowd. Just like our hurdler, our neighbors who are deemed “disqualified” need the support of their immediate community to cross the line.

At MACC, we’re all about victory. It might not be a pretty process, but we are committed to providing the resources and encouragement to help our neighbors meet their goal. There may be no shining gold medal, but we can win the prize. When we clothe a family who lost all of their belongings in a fire, we win. When we keep an elderly woman from freezing in her house by keeping her heat on, we win. When we make it so a family can afford to eat, we win.

This is what victory looks like.

This is what community looks like.

Liu Xiang – Time Images

To clear up any potential confusion, the official Summerstock time is Saturday, August 18th, from 1:00-3:30pm.

As with any MACC event, we don’t want to do this without you, so we are posting a list of Summerstock volunteer opportunities. We hope there will be a position you will consider serving in to help make this event a success. Please comment on this post or email us to get involved.

• Hot Dog and Ice Cream Cart Volunteers: these volunteers will take orders, prepare the food, and serve the food. Each cart needs two volunteers.
• Parking Volunteers: these volunteers will help direct vehicles to parking spots.
• Mascot Volunteer: we need one or two people willing to “jump” into a kangaroo suit (generously donated by Kaburst) and pose for photos with kids.
• Sign-in Table Volunteers: these volunteers gather emails and other info as well as help direct visitors to Summerstock events.
• Pantry Volunteers: these volunteers either help families sort and stock food or help carry heavy donations from cars to the sorting room.

There are plenty of other opportunities for volunteering at Summerstock- please email Nathan, noldham@macc-ct.org, for more information.

Then he was gone.

Looking down at my hand, I opened my fingers to reveal the worn and courageous ten dollar bill; a piece of paper that could have traveled the world but ended up here, in my palm.

This is why we do it, I thought, not because it makes us feel good but because it creates a paradigm shift in the way we understand human relationships.

Someone we serve– here at MACC– is now serving. Someone we help, is now helping.

Ten dollars feeds a family of two or three people for a week. In plain language: one man is now feeding three.

This is a beautiful reality that accompanies stories of trials and fears. People with worn-out shoes or worn-down hearts not only get back on their feet at MACC, but they begin to tend to the others around them. Part of being a functioning member of society is the ability and willingness to take care of those around you. The virus of true community becomes contagious when both the rich and poor respond to the needs around them by saying, “You feed me, now I will feed.”

So, thank you, sir for showing us what matters most and what meeting needs really looks like on the deepest level. You’ve said more with your ten dollars than many of us could say with ten thousand.

After speaking with our member churches and gathering new ideas from volunteers and other partners, a common theme emerged which resulted in the development of this event; there was a call for more family-friendly events and opportunities to serve at MACC with children. Summerstock will be very family-oriented, with opportunities for kids to stock our pantry and take tours of our facilities. We will also have games and food available for the whole family during the event.

Being that this event is called “SummerSTOCK“, we are asking that families bring a bag of canned food for our pantry. Our pantry tends to run low in the Summer, so this is the perfect time to come and enjoy serving as a family on a Saturday afternoon! Listed below is a short list of some pantry needs:

• Peanut butter and jelly
• Canned meat and condiments
• Cereal
• Pasta and sauce
• Toilet paper
• Paper towels

We hope that you will be able to come enjoy a day of serving our community together.

Our address:

466 Main St., Manchester

We have been thinking about a name for those opportunists — those hidden between the screen pixels and airwaves — who want to give their time and skills to non-profits without needing to be in the same time zone (though many are). They are the rogue bloggers and online data analysts, the copy-writers and the graphic designers, the proofreaders and social media butterflies, the Excel gurus and the consultants; they are the virtual volunteers. 

These new virtual opportunities do not eliminate the need or decrease the significance of volunteers in community kitchens, pantries, shelters or offices, they simply create new ways for people to get involved. Some of the benefits of the virtual volunteer:

• Virtual volunteers can work on projects on a flexible time schedule (no set hours). People who might otherwise have been unable to participate can now make time on their own to join the mission.
• Virtual volunteers are often quick communicators.
• Virtual volunteers might be from a new pool of unexplored networks.
• Virtual volunteers bring new and unique skill-sets to many non-profits.
• Virtual volunteers can fill vital gaps in many non-profit technology initiatives.

Being that non-profits and social service organizations are generating more online content and are increasingly aware of their marketing and branding needs, a gate into a new realm has been opened for the computer-savvy and tech-lovers, regardless of age or location. MACC is no exception.

We encourage you to contact us if you want to participate in our mission as a virtual volunteer.

Contact:

Nathan Oldham

noldham@macc-ct.org

860-942-4549

A few weeks ago we discussed the bare shelves that tend to appear during the summer months, this is what they looked like:

The response was swift. Volunteers heard the call and filled our shelves so no families or individuals would have to face a slim selection of food. There is a sense of ownership that compels the volunteers around here to action. The stakes are high. They know what it means when we say that our shelves are decimated; it means that our neighbors might not eat if we don’t make something happen, quickly. 

It has been a few weeks since the word spread about the need and volunteers are still bringing in food from drives and events. Today happened to be the day of the Temple Food Drive at our local Stop and Shop (pictured below). Our massive sorting table was hidden beneath the piles of food and there was still more coming in!

There have been many other drives and there are many more on the way. We simply want to acknowledge and thank all of our volunteers who have given so generously to keep these shelves full. Though the needs will never go away, we believe the army of men and women who stand by our side will always push back against hunger and poverty in our community, regardless of  the season or the reason.

Advocacy can be quite rewarding, as reported by one of our volunteers, Roberta, who works in the Department of Advocacy and Support Services a couple days a week.

She had taken a call from a desperate client who needed to make a $140 payment to the electric company that day, May 9, or her electricity would be shut off. The client said she would have the money May 19, but the company refused to wait. Roberta gave the client the phone number of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), suggesting they might be able to intervene with the company on her behalf.

A few hours later, the client called back, happy and excited to thank Roberta. The DEEP had convinced the electric company to change the payment date to May 19. The client’s immediate problem was solved and, better yet, she learned how to advocate for herself.

We often don’t know when our clients have success with a utility or a SNAP application because we just don’t see them again, so it was extremely gratifying for Roberta.

This is what advocacy is all about. At the end of the day, we love helping when we are needed but , even more, we exist to teach people how to advocate for themselves.

________________________

To learn more about volunteer opportunities in advocacy or other areas of MACC, please send an email to jcampion@macc-ct.org, noldham@macc-ct.org or call at 860-647-8003.

More than 20,000 pounds of food was donated to MACC’s food pantry and kitchen during the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual food drive last Saturday. Cereal, pasta, canned tuna, soup and vegetables, and dozens of other foods were collected during regular mail deliveries in Manchester and Bolton. We want to thank our letter carriers for their extra effort, our neighbors for their generosity, and our dedicated volunteers who transported and sorted the food.  Because neighbors are helping neighbors, we can continue to help families who are struggling to put food on their tables.

anyone. 

KaBurst allows us here at MACC to write a short message about an emergency need or upcoming event which will then be sent immediately via email or text message to our followers. Most networking options require our volunteers and partners to  go online, login, and sift through recent updates. KaBurst makes it so the messages go to you. One free sign-up is all it takes to start receiving our “bursts”.

KaBurst is local, which means that it was started by locals and has many businesses already signed up. If you want to be aware of the specials at your favorite local restaurant or small business, simply wait for the burst to appear on your phone or in your email. These guys are also unqiue in that they all have a strong background in financial systems development which simply means that this network is extremely secure and all of your information is safe.

We hope that you sign-up for free at the Kaburst website to start receiving our updates within the next two weeks. Also, check out their blog where they recently highlighted our efforts at MACC!

He described in three words what some people have written  books about. At the end of the day, without this type of engagement, there would be no MACC. On the ground level, it all comes back to eye contact, shaking hands and talking. These basic gestures of life are what keep us human. These avenues of primal communication keep people from feeling neglected and marginalized.

When we “walk the beat” (read: serve/volunteer), we remember why we do what we do whether we are staff, volunteers or partners. This realization is why so many people volunteer at MACC. There are countless stories of first-time volunteers who came to serve a dinner and were nervous before dishing out the first meal. Most of those stories ended with an epiphany that we’re all people, we’re neighbors and crossing the threshold from a face to a name is one of the most important things we can do.

We invite you to walk the beat with us! Even if you have never volunteered before, we would hope that you consider joining us in our mission. If you already serve with us regularly, we hope that this resonates with your drive to restore dignity and hope.

Okay, you’re right, that is ridiculous! The truth is much more interesting. We are in the process of expanding our parking lot to meet some zoning requirements that would (finally) allow us to move the Church Mouse Thrift Shoppe onto our property. This is part of an ongoing effort to move all of our services to one location. Having a central campus makes it much easier for clients and volunteers to locate us for any possible need.

The grant that is allowing us to move the thrift shop to our property is also allowing us to install a handicap-friendly bathroom, put on new siding on some of our buildings, construct handicap access to the thrift shop, add a new exit, windows, stairs and a roof, build a cover for our outdoor freezer, install new flooring and an instant hot water system (so all of our guests can have a hot shower).

If all goes according to plan, we will have all our services running from our five buildings on Main Street in Manchester by the end of the Summer! In the meantime, you can park at Lincoln Center next door.

We enjoyed a special  time of prayer, song, reflection and fellowship.  The fifty people in attendance represented  our approximate 55,000 residents (that is about 11,000 each).  Faith Leaders from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities led prayers,songs and shared their faith, reflections, readings and scriptures with those in attendance.  If you have a little better day than most, you may want to think about the prayers said on your behalf today.

The Spiritual Leaders of Manchester prayed for our first responders, schools, students, families, elected officials, the poor, elderly, our freedoms, peace, unity, diversity, tolerance, our military, economy, jobs, the hungry and spoke of respect of faith, each other and how faith can make a community better.

It was beautiful and, as one minister put it, we are beautiful people.  From where I sit, I see how we bless each other every day.  Take a moment today to be thankful.  Talk to someone about faith today.  If we take the time to reflect on the good things in our town and invest in its people, we will see the change we want in our community.

Manchester is a wonderful place to live, work, worship and play.  I believe this – do you?

- Beth Stafford | CEO

“Join us.” is a very different message than “Help us.” simply because we don’t want to exist as an organization where you come only when we are nearing the brink of desperation. The fact is that poverty is a tireless, day-in and day-out, relentless hope-killer. Our mission must not only match — but exceed — the weight and strength of the poverty that traps our neighbors. It takes a community of hopeful, determined, loving and passionate individuals to push back and restore hope. This is our burden to carry together.

MACC Charities has existed for years with a community that has understood what “Join us.” means. However, our pantry continues to swell with families and the elderly and our kitchen continues to plate food for the empty stomachs. The call to “Join us.” is as prevalent now as it ever was because poverty is not resting today. We don’t need you to merely fill an empty slot when we need it, we want you to recognize that there is always a need and it is our mission to meet those needs together.

So, will you “Join us.”? If you already have, will you consider spreading this message? There is no maximum capacity for this mission; there is always room.

We always have new and ongoing volunteer opportunities, upcoming events and a place to give to our mission.

• EXPO- This coming Saturday, there will be an EXPO held at Cheney Technical High School from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The entrance fee is simply one non-perishable food item which goes directly to MACC or a $1 donation which goes towards the fuel bank. You will have access to a wide variety of local businesses and services- the day promises to be an enjoyable, family-friendly event. We hope you come to support your community and to support MACC!
• The national campaign Stamp Out Hunger is coming up on May 12th. Postal Workers will collect canned food which has been bagged and placed by a mailbox to then donate to local pantry that day (we happen to be one of those local pantries). Visit their website to learn more about the event.This is an event that can have long-lasting effects, especially when the community is aware of the opportunity! As you may know, this is the hardest time of year for our pantry. Food drives like this one keep our shelves stocked and families fed- we thank you in advance for your involvement, please contact us with any questions.
• You are invited to participate in the 16th Annual Todd Abitz Golf Tournament as a golfer or a sponsor. This year, the tournament will be held at the Blackedge Country Club in Hebron, CT. There are going to be a wide variety of door and raffle prizes, a breakfast and dinner and plenty of entertainment. The profits from this event benefit MACC, HVCC and and the Men’s Club of Beth Sholom B’Nai Israel. For more information, please visit the event website.

We hope to see you at some- or all- of these events!

We love volunteers. Many of you choose to give your time and resources to help shoulder MACC’s mission and we are continually amazed by you. Our MACC MINUTE recently was sent out and the last snippet on the newsletter was a short list of new volunteer positions. While these positions are open to existing volunteers, we strongly encourage people who are new to MACC to take a look at the list and apply as well. For those of you interested in serving with us in a new capacity, here is some more information about the positions:

• E-Newsletter Wizard: Our e-newsletter, the MACC MINUTE, is becoming one of our most frequent platforms of communication with our volunteers and member churches. We want to make it look and feel clean, fun and modern. We are searching for someone proficient in HTML so we can customize the MACC MINUTE to meet our branding demands. If you have experience in HTML and want to help serve with MACC in this way, call or email us.
• Media Team: This is going to be a relatively large group that will produce a range of products meant to clarify, creatively communicate and carry our vision further into the community. This group will require the input of graphic artists, film and cinematography professionals, photographers, and public relations experts (for News Releases, etc.). While experience is preferred, we encourage students to apply as well.
• Proofing Team: We write a lot of text at MACC and our eyes start to blur when we stare too long at our emails, newsletters and reports. We need a group of people who are detail-oriented and proficient with MS Word and email. We would regularly send out current projects via email to our proofing team and would expect a response within a short period of time.

Last Thursday, we had 44 families shop at our pantry. Of those families, 7 were new to MACC. This is not a new trend; pantry usage has been on a steady incline for a while now and it is not showing any signs of slowing. Of course, we are as committed as we have ever been to meeting the emergency needs in the Manchester area, but without your continual support, our shelves end up looking like this:

Thankfully, our pantry received a generous donation that day from a local Boy Scout group which allowed us to re-stock. However, it is a timely reminder that this is the time of year where it is easy to forget the needs in our community.

The reality for many people is that kids are on school vacation, childcare costs are high and gas is up. The household budget- especially for fixed incomes- simply cannot meet all of the demands. The food budget is often what takes the cut in these cases.

Vacation plans take us away from the hustle of life and the warm weather beckons us to play in the parks and relish in the parade of barbecues. The greenery starts to fill in and soon the world is awash with colors and it’s easy to forget that there are still people who are going to bed hungry in our community.

We ask that you continue to join with us. Here’s how you can have an impact:

• Donate food (cereal, canned meats, peanut butter, pasta and sauce, canned veggies and fruits, soup, healthly snacks, condiments)
• Donate goods (toilet tissue, paper towels, diapers, laundry detergent, feminine products, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap, dish soap)
• Monthly giving: $50/month feeds an entire family though any monthly commitment helps a great deal and will never go to waste. You can donate here.

For more information on the food pantry, contact Dale Doll at 860-288-4251.

To set up a time to serve, contact Jacki Campion at 860-288-4256 or Nathan Oldham 860-942-4549.

Thank you for your continual support and for joining us in our mission to meet basic emergency needs in our community.

Faith in Action is a national event where churches can opt to go into the community on a Sunday and forego their usual service. Concordia Lutheran Church decided to bring the event to our doorstep this year, offering to paint our entire kitchen, pantry and shelter.

As the sun got higher, the MACC coordinator at Concordia (Trisha) brought some last minute supplies to our facilities. We set up the tables that would soon sag under the weight of the paint and brushes and we opened the doors and windows to the kitchen. With the naked walls and piles of furniture in the middle of the rooms, we were ready to get the event started.

Volunteers started pouring in at 10. Young and old, men and women, children and grandparents rolled up their sleeves to begin the facelift. They rolled the Beige onto our kitchen walls, the Sage Green onto our shelter, and the Mountain Air Blue onto our pantry. Faces were speckled with drops of color and overalls were smeared with paint as the group coated our walls.

The whole time, all I could think of was, “This is what church looks like.” MACC is the extension of 36 churches and events like Faith in Action remind us how beautiful this mosaic is. One of the greatest privileges of working at MACC is getting to see the relationships that are built among our churches, people and businesses in the greater Manchester area. Truly, there is nothing like community.

So here’s a “thank you” to Concordia, the businesses that joined with us in this event, and the people who showed up to make the vision a reality. Together, we are helping to restore lives and build hope by meeting emergency needs.

Welcome to the somewhat informal yet always pertinent blog that chronicles the journey of MACC Charities. In case you are unfamiliar with them, blogs are simply online communication tools that allow for regular updates of news, ideas, events and more.  If you’re wondering what you are supposed to do with this site, you can relax and know that all you have to do is check in a few times a week to see what else we have posted. So, to get things started, you might want to bookmark this page so you don’t forget it!

Why start a blog?

There are a few good reasons to write a blog for MACC:

1. Regular updates: as I mentioned, we now have a free way to keep you up to date and informed as to our current events.
2. Engagement: blogs are interactive. This means that readers can comment on and share any story on this site. Join the conversation!
3. Networking: lots of people blog and there is a booming interest in the “blogosphere” that can lead to increased exposure of our efforts.
4. Fun: blogging is enjoyable, both for the writers and the audience.

Who is this for?

This blog is for everyone and anyone. It is open to MACC Staff, volunteers and guests.

Now what?

Now you can scroll around (although there is not much content yet) and read the stories, look at the pictures and watch the videos. We encourage you to comment on stories and share the posts with your friends, family or community. The more people that come to this site and read the content, the greater chance we have of spreading the word about our efforts here in Manchester. Thank you for reading, come back often!

Oh! And don’t forget to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. We also just joined Kaburst and highly recommend you sign up for it- more to come on that…

- Nathan Oldham | Community Engagement Coordinator