Update!
I just took the donations from everyone to
Dance With Melody in Middletown one box 4 bags and $60 worth of Shop Rite gift cards!
thanks to all who gave! this should help them to fill the back packs up for the long thanksgiving weekend.
I also know that many of you couldn't give at this time due to other charities or extra holiday expenditures so please know this is an ongoing thing that you can donate to anytime just read below.
Thanks again! Love, Cassie
Hey peeps! I stumbled upon a really great local charity that could really use our help! It's called The Backpack Crew
You can also find them on Facebook too. Read below some excerpts from The Patch Article I found about this charity:
Suzanne Dice runs a
program called ”The Backpack Crew,” Each backpack, which Dice states numbers
around twenty-five currently, is filled with enough food for each family
to survive over the weekend with. It’s a program that is done
anonymously, to protect the pride of struggling families affected by
Superstorm Sandy in one Middletown school system..
There are still families who are essentially homeless two years later
from Sandy, and as time passes, are being overlooked and pushed to the
back burner of people’s thoughts and concerns.
Thinking of how humiliating it might be for a child to carry food from
the school back to home, in front of all of their not-so-understanding
peers, Dice came up with an anonymous system. The nurse of the unnamed
elementary school is the only person with the list of families who have
signed up to received free food every weekend.
Families that sign up with the program list the
number and ages of members in their household, and also if there are any
food allergies, but otherwise Dice says she chooses general food
products that are healthy, and she packs enough food for breakfast,
lunch, dinner and snacks to last a family two days.
They unload the
backpacks at the nurse’s office early Friday mornings. Students are then
able to retrieve their numbered backpack, and bring food home to their
families without anyone ever knowing or having the chance to shame or
taunt the student and family needing assistance. The backpacks are then
simply dropped back in the nurse’s office quietly and privately by the
student, without other kids at school noticing and having the chance to
possibly tease or ridicule the student, in the sometimes cruel and
taunting ways that kids bully one another.
“Everyone has a responsibility to help one another, if
you are able to. There’s no excuse not to help your neighbors, and
members of your own community.” Dice says.
She hopes to expand the Backpack Crew to other schools in the
area, and even beyond in the future. For now, word of mouth is all she
can wish for to keep the program running in the one elementary school,
with food donations from the public.
So with this in mind I am going to be collecting needed items for this program from Now until Saturday November 22. This way they will have plenty to pack for the families to cover the long holiday weekend. You can drop them off at my house or bring to any event.
Below is a list of needed items, be sure they have a good shelf life and NO GLASS please. There is also a link for monetary donations.
Needed Items:
* granola bars
* mac and cheese
* soup
* small cereal boxes
* small plastic jars of peanut butter (most needed item)
* crackers
* spaghetti and sauce (no glass jars please)
* instant oatmeal packets
* small cans of fruit
Also Gift Cards to local grocery stores:
Acme, Shop Rite, Wegmans, Stop and Shop, Costco or Foodtown
OR
For online donations via Pay Pal:
https://www.formstack.com/forms/?1713717-Vod1nJM3xV
I know I could count on you all in the past so am looking forward to your help now!
With Love and in the Light, Cassie
Thur 11/6 Full Moon Ceremony 
Sun 12/14 A Jersey Shore Christmas at Espresso Joe's 
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Places to go Pumpkin Picking: 