Our SWH Leadership Team diligently worked this year to establish the values that Servants With a Heart strives to uphold. At the start of each meeting, we take turns selecting values and sharing examples we’ve encountered since our last gathering. This practice ensures that the values remain fresh and relevant in our minds. We are thrilled to share these values with you! You’ll notice the initial letters form a word that is very important to us. 💙💚
We’ve had an exciting few weeks here at Servants With a Heart. On August 16 we packed our 30 millionth meal at St. Matthew Catholic Church. Last week, we shipped a container to our partner Atulado Ministries in Cuba, and just yesterday a second container was shipped to Go Out Ministries in Haiti.
Thank you to all the volunteers and organizations who have packed with us since we started in 2011—without you it would have be impossible to pack our 30 millionth meal last month! That means a lot of people have received food and felt love thanks to your generosity and willingness to volunteer.
The container shipped to Cuba has meals packed by St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Simpsonville SC and St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte NC. The meals headed to Haiti were packed throughout the summer by BeDoTell, a Baptist summer camp that meets at Fort Caswell, near Wilmington NC.
We are grateful to all the many volunteers who helped prepare these meals! We also appreciate the funds that were raised to cover shipping to Cuba by Atulado and to Haiti by the Baptist State Convention of NC. Without the help of everybody involved, we couldn’t do all we are able to do! We’ve attached some photos below of each truck as it was being loaded, as well as our 30 Million Meals box.
My name is Taylor Grant Chabot and I am part of the Ally Bank Financial Crimes Compliance (FCC) Enterprise Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Program team, which sits within the Ally Bank Legal & Corporate Affairs (LCA) organization. Ashley Reynolds joined our team as an intern during the summer of 2025 and immediately made an impact via her contributions, which included the organization of a “Giving Back” event for the LCA organization. Ally prioritizes giving back to the community and when Ashley casually mentioned that she held leadership positions in 2 different non-profit organizations, I encouraged her to take ownership of organizing a volunteer event for our team members.
We had 25 LCA team members participate in the event and packed more than 18,000 meals in 3 hours!
The SWH team did a fantastic job explaining the immediate local and international impact our efforts would have and took the time during our event to provide an overview of the organization, share their personal testimonies, and shared a video highlighting recent meal distribution trips, which allowed Ally team members to visualize the joy, nourishment, appreciation, and gratitude of those benefiting from these meals. The event itself was a well oiled machine! The SWH team has the logistics down to a science and did a phenomenal job explaining the process of meal packing, as well as explaining the importance of the ingredients, package weight, and boxing.
Energetic music played throughout the event and our Ally team members spent time in fellowship, sharing summer plans, learning about current projects, meeting new team members, and fostering a little healthy competition for who could pack the most meals during our event.
I want to personally thank Ashley for organizing this event and introducing our team to SWH! I am looking forward to future opportunities to partner with the organization, both at Ally and personally. Thank you, SWH team!
Today’s blog is by Laura Palmer, from the Young Men’s Service League
Young Men’s Service League (YMSL), Waxhaw Chapter was founded in 2021 and serves Union County, Charlotte and the surrounding area. Mothers and their sons commit to the national mission to assist, serve, and support those who are in need in the community, develop leadership skills among members, and promote mother-son relationships.
Among the 20 philanthropies served by the YMSL Waxhaw Chapter is Servants with a Heart. Over the past year, 55 mothers and sons participated in 5 SWH Impact Days during the ‘24/’25 program year. Mothers and sons served side by side packing meals for hungry children and their families abroad and in the local Charlotte area. A favorite among the Waxhaw Chapter, the SWH Impact event provided a day of service, fellowship and fun.
My son and I eagerly await the release of the SWH Impact Day schedule each season, as it is our favorite event all year! The impact that this event has on us goes beyond the scooping, measuring and weighing of each meal. By providing a basic human need to hungry children and their families around the world, we are contributing to their overall wellness. – Laura Palmer
My favorite part of Servants With a Heart is standing beside my boys, fellow moms, and the young men of our chapter, praying over the meals we’ve prepared—knowing that each one will bring nourishment to someone who truly needs it. – Becky Edwards
We are happy to share some photos from Guatemala, where food packed by Pineville Church in Pineville NC has recently arrived for distribution.
We are grateful for our partnership with Pineville Church; nearly 3000 volunteers have packed almost 800,000 meals with servants with a heart since 2016!
photos provided by John Pina, SWH Leadership Team and Pineville Church Member 💙💚
Here are some new photos from the distribution of SWH meals in Cuba via Atulado Ministries! We remain excited about this partnership and are thrilled that the food packed by volunteers is consistently reaching its intended recipients through the hard work of so many churches and pastors in Cuba. Thank you!
We are excited to share some photos from a container of servants with a heart meals that has been delivered to Niger by our partner, Convoy of Hope. Niger is in West Africa, and over 80% of its land is in the Sahara desert. Convoy of Hope has a Children’s Feeding Program there that serves 10,000 children, in addition to their programs that fuel Women’s Empowerment, Agriculture, and Girls Clubs. They work in Niamey (the location of their warehouse), Maraci, and Zinder.
We are happy to see the beautiful faces of so many children receiving meals packed by SWH volunteers at Forest Hill Church in Fort Mill SC, Jenkins Restorations, Union Academy in Monroe NC, Cornelius Elementary School in Cornelius NC, Elizabeth Lane Elementary School in Matthews NC, and McKee Road Elementary School in Charlotte NC.
Please read this great blog about our recent event and new partnership with Queens University in Charlotte.
We are excited about the fantastic day and looking forward to many more! 💚💙
https://www.queens.edu/blog/day-of-scholarship-and-service-a-new-tradition/
A view of our setup at Queens University last month.
Today’s blog is from Cynthia Mitchell, K-12 Character Education Coach at Union Academy in Monroe, NC
Union Academy K-12 students and staff once again had the opportunity to partner with Servants With a Heart to pack meals for those in need around the world. Having collaborated with this incredible organization multiple times, this event remains one of our favorite days of the year! This time, we extended our schedule, allowing us to pack over 71,000 meals—our most impactful effort yet.
Throughout the day, students not only learned about the program but also engaged in meaningful, hands-on service by working together to assemble meals. They enjoyed the experience of collaborating with their school family groups, strengthening bonds while making a difference. This event continues to be a highlight of Union Academy’s Annual Community Service Day.
The team at Servants With a Heart is truly outstanding! From setup to cleanup, they are well-organized, professional, accommodating, and always friendly. Their seamless coordination, combined with the dedication of our volunteers, made for another successful event. Our school community is deeply grateful for this partnership and proud to support an organization making such a positive impact on the world.
Please read this wonderful article about our recent packing event at Union Academy.
This K-12 charter school in Monroe, NC has been partnering with us since 2014 and has packed over 300,000 meals during that time! We are grateful for their willingness to volunteer and for the emphasis they place on teaching kids how to make an impact in their local community and internationally.
