Year End Appeal

Dear Supporters of Helping Hands:

As winter tightens its grip on the land, the folks most affected are, as always, the homeless, together with those whose housing and access to food are insecure. The consequences of the Covid epidemic have wreaked havoc on our resources, severely affecting our ability to help those whom we have tried, for so many years, to assist. Your help has never been more urgently needed if we are not to suffer a repeat of last winter when several of our clients died. We need warm scarves and gloves, woolen hats and socks, waterproof footwear, and stout outer clothing. Men’s underwear is always needed and so very, very much appreciated by those who receive it.

While we have not yet been able to resume our “sit down” week-day breakfast program in Spring Valley, we are providing a nutritious “take-away” service of a cooked breakfast and bag lunch for 60 people each morning. We also have a mobile outreach program which takes food, clothing and other services such as help for the mentally ill, to those in the encampments to which the homeless have gravitated. Our mobile shower program has served nearly 400 people this season and while its use is now subject to the cold weather, it has proven to be a real boon for those who have benefited from it.

There is a cost associated with our work. The supplies Helping Hands gives out on the streets need to be replenished constantly; we must purchase or prepare meal kits for distribution on a daily basis; we must secure facilities and purchase and maintain equipment that need to be readied for use in the socially-distanced and sanitized post COVID-19 world. All this is a very expensive proposition and becoming more so as inflation rears its head. And these expenses are constant. Without an equally constant flow of income, we simply cannot meet them. While we will certainly welcome any donation you can make, please consider becoming a monthly sustaining donor. A small monthly amount, starting at $25, every month – less than $1 a day - charged by Helping Hands to the credit card of your choice, will help to provide us with the reliable income stream which we need so much. Please see our website www.rocklandhelpinghands.com for how to become a monthly sustaining “Friend of Helping Hands”.

Remember always that the best exercise for your heart is to reach down and help someone else up.

Thank you.

Helping Hands Board