SWH updates

We are excited to share that our packing events are (slowly!) starting to look a bit more normal. We have one of our largest events of the year this Saturday, at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte. Their shifts filled almost immediately with church members and the church plans to pack 300,000 meals to send to their partners in Haiti! They are doing more shifts than normal, with fewer people per shift, to still meet their goal.

We also have two school events and two additional church events planned this fall, and we hope to add more. Please remember that we would love to pack in your local school, church, or business—just contact us at info@servantswithaheart.org for more information. The first event at a public school within an hour or two of Charlotte is free!

Please watch our website and social media channels (Instagram and Facebook) for upcoming SWH Impact Days at Furniture Factory Outlet World in Waxhaw. Signups will be open soon.

Finally, we are thrilled to say that our containers of food that were stuck in customs in Nicaragua are no longer stuck! Meals are currently being distributed by our partners at Samaritans International of Nicaragua.

Suzanne Yoh
A quick update from Nicaragua

below please find an update from our friends at samaritan’s International in Nicaragua…

When you see a man coming asking for food you know his family has real needs.

As a parent, it hurts our hearts to see our children suffer, the hopeless feeling that we do not have a way to help. Most of us are blessed that we have never had to see any of our children cry for lack of food. We have, however, had to deal with sickness and other situations where we were helpless to fix the problem. We have compassion for parents who would do anything to get food for their family—these people pray and ask God to help because they have no one else. You can be a part of answering these prayers by helping our ministry that is working to do God's work day by day.

Please continue to pray with us that the containers will be cleared this month! We have 5 containers in total we have been working to get through the customs process—these will bring over one million meals to the people of Nicaragua. 

The need may seem too big for us to be able to fix, but we can work together to solve this huge problem.

Suzanne Yoh
Making an impact

Today’s blog is from Megan O’Keefe, SWH leadership team member and local charlotte-area high school student

My first exposure to Servants With a Heart happened when I was a 5th grader. The church I attend, St. Matthew Catholic Church, was having their annual World Hunger Drive meal packing event, and my mom signed us up for one of the 2-hour time slots available. Before helping pack the meals we were all gathered in a room where we learned more about the event, about Missionaries of the Poor, about Servants With a Heart, and watched a video showing us the impact that we would be making by volunteering. The video was so moving and made me feel extremely happy to know that I would be helping those in other countries who are not as lucky! The event was extremely fun and I could not wait to be a part of it again the following year!

We have participated in every single World Hunger Drive event since then, but we wanted more! We believed so much in what SWH is all about that we got on their mailing list so that we could attend other events in other venues.

In 2020, with the opening of the space at Furniture Factory Outlet World, we decided that this is where and how we wanted to spend our Saturday mornings…packing meals and serving others! I love what we do at SWH and the impact we can make in the lives of less fortunate individuals in some of the poorest places in the world!

My journey started as a way to earn volunteer hours for school, but SWH is now a part of me and I feel honored not only to be able to participate in our meal packing events, but also to be a part of the leadership team in this wonderful organization!

Megan in our space in Waxhaw at Furniture Factory Outlet World, during one of our SWH Impact Days!

Megan in our space in Waxhaw at Furniture Factory Outlet World, during one of our SWH Impact Days!

Suzanne Yoh
Moving right along!

Now that Covid is (hopefully!) making its exit, servants with a heart is ready to get back into the regular swing of things. We are continuing to host SWH Impact Days down at our space at Furniture Factory Outlet World in Waxhaw (those events fill very quickly—make sure you’re on our email list if you want to know when to sign up). On June 26th, we will be experimenting with some of our regular lines in half the room while keeping the other half socially-distant. If you’d like to help us figure out the new configuration, please email me directly at suzanne@servantswithaheart.org and I will let you know if we still have space. Note that these volunteer spots will not be separated by family and you’ll be working immediately next to others.

We are excited that organizations are again contacting us to host their own packing events and we now have several on the horizon, both confirmed and in early planning stages. Most of these regular events are open only to members of the sponsoring group, but if they are ever available to those outside, we will send an email to our email list (again, make sure you’re on there if you aren’t already!).

Also, with our new space in Waxhaw, we are happy to be able to offer the opportunity for smaller private events (our regular minimum is 50,000 meals, or $7500, and usually about 200 people). In this smaller dedicated space, we can accommodate groups with as few as 20 people or as large as 60, depending on current state Covid guidelines (possibly more, which is what we will be determining on June 26th); each person is responsible for paying for the food they pack during a two-hour shift ($45/person). Please contact us if you are interested in hosting your own packing event.

Suzanne Yoh
Update from nicaragua

Here’s the latest information from our partner, Samaritans international of nicaragua

In Nicaragua, we are still being really careful with the Covid-19 situation; the government began vaccinating the elderly in March. At our school, we are working with a modified distance learning plan due to a rise of Covid-type sickness in Pochocuape, with pre-school and elementary children coming three days per week and high schoolers coming twice a week. We continue wearing masks, social distancing, and extra hand-washing. We are doing everything we can to protect our families while obeying the government order that we have in-person school.

Hundreds of families are still struggling to recover from last November’s back to back hurricanes. With entire crops wiped out and dozens of homes destroyed, the daily struggle for food continues. But the Lord has been faithful to provide for those most affected, the children. Each month, people are reminded of God’s love and compassion as over 130,000 vitamin-enriched meals are served to children living in the lower river region. The love of Jesus shrines through every child’s smiling face, knowing that they will not go to bed hungry.

Finally, we continue with our agriculture project. Our chickens should start laying eggs in the next two weeks, and the rainy season is just starting so it is time to plant. We planted banana and plantain trees.

Thank you for your prayers!

Suzanne Yoh
Thanks from Guatemala

We received a nice thank you note and a couple photos from friends who packed with us at Pineville Church last month and wanted to share. Thanks so much!

We just want to share what an incredible ministry Servants With A Heart is! We have worked with them several times and they are a tremendous organization. They are friendly, caring, efficient, and great to work with. In each of our first four years, they helped us pack over 50,000 meals. Last year and this year we packed over 100,000 meals each time. This has enabled us to feed numerous children in the villages of Guatemala. This year with the Covid-19 pandemic, we were unsure how it would all work. Servants With A Heart did a wonderful job of adjusting the process so it was organized, efficient and safe. Social distancing was incorporated into the process while families were also able to work closely together. Thank you Servants With a Heart! You have our highest recommendation!


Mike & Carol Claypool, Co-Founders Give and Teach, Guatemala

Suzanne Yoh
Thank you!

“What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” – Aristotle

April is a month dedicated to recognizing the importance and significance of volunteers. Servants with a Heart would like to say a special thank you to each and every volunteer who has helped over the last ten years. That’s more than 155,000 thank yous! What an amazing and awesome job done by volunteers who have dedicated time to something bigger than themselves. Needs are everywhere around us and without volunteers sometimes those needs are never met. There is not much more important than a meal! Servants with a Heart volunteers have packed more than 20 million meals and counting.

April was made the official National Volunteer month by George H. W. Bush in 1991. He developed the 1000 Lights Campaign which aimed to create a global culture of volunteerism. Volunteers are a force that can change the world!

Every volunteer makes a difference. As we look forward to 2021 we invite you to find a volunteer opportunity! Find a Servants with a Heart event at this link.

Kristin Reynolds, SWH Leadership Team

Suzanne Yoh
Don’t take for granted…

For many Americans, this is not an uncommon scene around meal time: I got up the other morning with designs on having bacon and eggs for breakfast, but to my frustration, there was neither in my refrigerator. So I hopped in my car, ran to the grocery store, grabbed what I wanted and headed home to cook. In the mile and a half to the store, I passed three semi-trucks carrying food to restaurants and said grocery store. I normally wouldn't pay attention to them, and would simply be frustrated being behind them in traffic. I would also not give a second thought to going to the store in our fast-paced life, but I was going to load a container of meals for our meal recipients in Nicaragua the following day. We had just received an email from our partner, Samaritan's International, about the plight of the people in the Mayangna region in Nicaragua. They are not only dealing with the normal travails of life there, but also the devastation of being hit hard by two Category 5 hurricanes that destroyed much of the little infrastructure they had. Death from starvation has become an everyday occurrence for them. The 42,000 pounds of life-saving food on that truck packed by our great volunteers and local partners took on even greater significance. I can only imagine the hope and joy they feel when they see the boxes being delivered and know they can survive another day with food in their bellies due to the kindness and generosity of strangers. So the next time you're frustrated being stuck behind that big truck in traffic taking food to the grocery store, don't take that for granted. Be thankful.

There are several ways you can help. We pack meals on a small socially-distanced scale most Saturdays in our facility in Waxhaw. Donations are accepted to help those less fortunate. We do everything at cost and have no paid staff, so know that every dollar donated is used to feed people. You can learn more about our work, schedule your own socially-distanced packing event, sign up for an Impact Day or make donations on our website.

Brandon Faulkner, SWH program director

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Suzanne Yoh
Back to (normal?)
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What a great time we had returning to Calvary Church in Charlotte, NC for a (mostly!) conventional packing event last weekend, where more than 250 volunteers created more than 100,000 meals for hungry people in Nicaragua and in our local area!

Our packing event at Calvary was not completely “normal,” as we used our socially-distanced packing model which allowed for a total of 8 “pods” of volunteers per shift. People signed up as family units (or in groups that had already been exposed to one another), so no section contained more than six people, and there were jobs for individuals and smaller families as well. Many Calvary members signed up but we were also able to eventually open signups to those on the SWH email list; many people had the opportunity to take part.

All volunteers wore face coverings, hairnets, and gloves, and individuals did their best to remain socially-distanced from those not in their groups and be respectful of others. We skipped our normal video training and went old-school, demonstrating in person how to use the new packing configuration, and watched the SWH Intro Video on big screens in the packing room itself. Obviously with this new arrangement, things went a little slower than normal, but we were still able to pack 101,952 meals on Saturday. With two more packing events at churches over the next couple weeks, we hope to add between 100,000 and 175,000 more meals to that March running total. We love our SWH Impact Days, but usually are only able to pack between 10,000 and 15,000 meals on those Saturdays—so it is exciting to add so many meals to help hungry people!

We are very grateful to be slowly (and carefully) returning to larger packing events, and hope this trend continues past this month. We will also be hosting SWH Impact Days down in Waxhaw again soon (likely in April)—so watch for signups on our social media channels and here on the website. And if your church, business, or other group is interested in hosting its own packing event, please contact info@servantswithaheart.org.

Suzanne Yoh
HOPE

Today’s blog is from Cynthia Hair, SWH Leadership Team member

During the Covid-19 pandemic, servants with a heart has distributed a large percentage of the food we’ve packed around the greater Charlotte area.

HOPE (Helping Others Progress through Education) of Rock Hill, a local South Carolina crisis assistance ministry, received 6,840 meals that were packed at the Elevation Riverwalk Campus. The leader of HOPE of Rock Hill, Gordon Bell, said that they distribute 6 tons of food each week to families in need in York County. Each family receives 3 meals a day for 7 days. Bell was very grateful to have the servants with a heart food to add to the weekly distributions. “It’s easy to prepare and it’s a huge supplement to ensure that people get the nutrition they need. It’s got everything in it,” Bell noted.

He also encourages his volunteers to try the food so they are able to tell their clients what it tastes like. One of his volunteers took a bag of our food on a camping trip and came back saying, “This is good, really pretty good!” Families receiving the food also appreciate having something easy to prepare when the kids are unable to attend school.

Thank you to all the great volunteers who have been packing with us at SWH Impact Days in Waxhaw. We also look forward to a few more conventional packing events at churches in the next month!

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Suzanne Yoh