Make a (covid-safe) impact: 3 ways COVID-19 can’t keep you from serving your community
Today’s blog is written by SWH volunteer Ellie Laymon, a current student at Wheaton College.
Since 2011 Servants With a Heart has partnered with dozens of Charlotte-local organizations to pack and distribute over 20,000,000 meals to families in need. For nearly 10 years the primary way SWH has served and fed Charlotte and Nicaraguan communities has been through equipping churches, schools, and organizations like the BoyScouts or businesses like Red Ventures with the resources to host meal packing events.
However, like many other luxuries, from eating out at restaurants with friends, to going to your favorite concert, the global Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way the world operates, and nonprofits like Servants With a Heart have taken some of the biggest hits. At a typical meal packing event, upwards of 150 people from a school, church, or other organization would gather together in a large space and serve side-by-side, packing 50-100K meals in 2 hour shifts. But with the concerns of Covid-19 in mind, for several months SWH, and many nonprofits like it have had to put production on hold, and the communities that were previously being served felt the effects.
We also know that not only has the pandemic affected SWH, the way people can serve, and the communities in need of food, but if you have served with us before or have been missing opportunities to serve in your community, you might be feeling like something is missing too. If you feel like you’ve been lacking in making a tangible difference in the world around you, here are 3 ways Covid-19 can’t keep you from making an impact.
sign up for weekend packing events
Whether it’s the inability to connect with members of your church through in person services, feeling a lack of fulfillment in work, or an overall sense of a loss of purpose, one of the best ways to get, is to give, and the global pandemic has made this increasingly difficult. For many people 2020 has been a rough year, but with the opening of Perry Brown Mission Center in Waxhaw, NC, SWH has been provided a place for organizations to come and serve in a Covid-safe environment.
Most months, Servants With a Heart posts about 3-4 weekend service opportunities that anyone can sign up for to come and serve. Each shift is 2 hours long and you can sign up with your family/friends in groups of 4-6, 2-3, or even as an individual. With the opening in August of this year, this opportunity has been a privilege for many people who have missed the ability to serve others to come together, to get to know people in their community, masked and socially distanced, while still making an impact on so many.
In a standard 2 hour shift, each person contributes to making around 300 meals, which translates to feeding a child for about a year! Because so many people in the Charlotte area have felt this desire to serve and there are few places where this is possible, sign ups for these weekend service opportunities have been filling up fast. The best way to stay connected is to sign up for the email list (if you haven’t already!) at the bottom of the Servants With a Heart homepage so that you can be notified when service opportunities get posted.
make a financial contribution
If you find that you are unable to serve in person, you can still play a part in the packing and distribution of meals to families in need. Servants With a Heart operates with no overhead and warehouse and meal transportation are funded by the Brown family; however, the cost of the meals themselves is not. Each packed meal costs about 15 cents (there are six meals per bag) and at a weekend service opportunity, each person in a two hour shift is responsible for packing 300 meals, costing about 45 dollars.
If serving in person at these weekend events isn’t something that works with your schedule, or health complications are of high concern, one way that you can keep serving your community is by donating to make weekend packing events happen. Just a one time donation of 50 dollars packs enough meals to feed a child for an entire year!
Another way to make your contribution have an even greater impact is by asking the company or organization you work for to match your donation at whatever ratio they’re willing to support. By simply partnering with your business, the contribution you make can double (or more!) the amount of meals that are being funded for children and families in need.
serve socially distant with your team
Although many people have been able to return to their offices and places of work in the fall of 2020, there are still a good number of people who have not been able to (and current circumstances are making returning even more difficult for many). Whether you have been able to return to work or are still operating remotely, connecting with your staff or team at work has been a challenge for all, especially outside of the office.
In the past, SWH was able to partner with organizations and come to their facilities to set up and pack meals, but with the complications of Covid and efforts to ensure everyone’s safety, this simply isn’t feasible on a large scale. Since the opening of Servants With a Heart’s first permanent facility, however, continuing to partner with larger groups and organizations is now possible again.
Any day of the week, businesses can partner with SWH in groups of anywhere from 20-40 people to come and serve alongside each other in a Covid-safe manner to connect with their team and make a lasting impact on those in need. In a standard 2 hour long shift, a minimum of 20 people could pack 6,000 meals for children and their families in Nicaragua and the Charlotte area.
All that is required is that your group (whether individually or corporately) raises the money needed to pack enough meals for a standard shift. Practically speaking, this would be $45 per person or a collective $900 for a minimum group of 20 people. This new opportunity for safe and efficient meal packing allows you to come together with the people in your office, boost morale, and be a part of something bigger than yourself. Have fun getting your team together, raising the money, and serving those in need while making the much needed connections with those you work with.
