The Perrysville Satellite Food Distribution is held the 4th Wednesday of the month (except November and December) at the Perrysville Community Center from 6:00 pm until the food is gone. This program serves families residing in Ashland County and in the Perrysville/Loudonville school districts.
Our Polk Satellite was started in 2011 with the help of 5 Stone Church and the Polk Fire Department. This Satellite is held the 3rd Tuesday of the month (January – October). It is located at the Polk Fire Station, 209 E. Congress Street from 6:00 pm until the food is gone. This serves families in need residing in Troy, Sullivan, Orange, Jackson and Perry Townships. Please bring proper ID to verify address and bags to carry your food.
This magical time of year is the perfect time to show our children the gift of giving. At Associated Charities/Ashland County Food Bank we have several ways you can involve your child in the “Giving Spirit”.
Adopt a Family: With this program you can request a child to “adopt”. Maybe you select one your child’s age. You would get a list of toys this child would like and then your child can shop! How exciting and rewarding for your child to help brighten another’s Christmas.
Food Drive: Create a Christmas meal menu and have you little one or teen shop for that meal. Or have them select a couple items from the list to donate. What a beautiful way to involve your child and help another family at the same time.
Toy Donation: Maybe when you are out shopping your child could purchase a gift or toy for another child their age. We sometimes need help knowing what the different age groups are wanting each year, especially the teens and this would be a big help for us to stock our “Santa” room.
No donation is too small. A child that has a dollar to spend and purchases a box of stuffing is just as precious as the one that spends ten dollars. We appreciate all our donors…large and small.
“If you can’t feed a hundred people – then feed just one”
Mother Teresa
This next month, provide your child with easy ways to positively affect other children in their community through volunteering and donating. At Associated Charities, we encourage individuals and families to participate with us by bringing in clothing items, food, and monetary donations or volunteering their time.
But if your kids are like my kids, they need a little motivation to do this. Help them understand the important role they could play in their communities via these five easy ways to give!
#1 Gather a Posse
Have teenagers?
Take them to a local second-hand store and ask them to try on several outfits that are too small or worn out.
Using their smart phone, have them take pictures of these outfits and post them to social media with the question: How would you feel showing up to school dressed like this? As their friends respond, encourage your teen to gather a posse of friends to go Back-to-School shopping for a few outfits to bring in to Associated Charities.
Your teen will feel good about the role he or she played in both gathering and supporting their community.
#2 Calculate
Got hungry pre-teens? Wait! Don’t feed them!
First, write prices ($1, $1.50, $3.25) on the cans and boxes in your cupboard then have them calculate what it will cost to make their next meal. This is a great way to introduce your kids to food costs.
Next time you visit the grocery store, give them a specific dollar amount and ask them to purchase a single meal’s worth of food to bring in to Associated Charities.
#3 Earn Interest
Teach your elementary age children to save and give money!
Open a house “savings account” that gains interest. Create a chart that shows how much they earn each time they do a household chore.
At the bottom of the chart, total their earnings plus interest (5%, 10%). After a couple of weeks, have them donate their interest to Associated Charities and spend the rest!
Bed Made … $2
Toys Picked Up … $5
Help Clear Dinner Table … $3
#4 Decorate and Donate!
Get your toddler in on this too!
Ask them to decorate a large box and fill it with food and clothing items to donate. They will enjoy watching it fill up. When full, grab your toddler and bring your box down to Associated Charities.
#5 Create an Exchange
Finally, motivate your kids of any age to volunteer their time by creating a time exchange: for every hour you spend with them on a specific Saturday or Sunday doing an activity they enjoy, ask them to give a half hour of their time to Associated Charities the following week.
Not only will they benefit the needs of their community, but they will also get some quality time with you!
It’s almost time to start thinking “back-to-school.” Give me a few more weeks of sunshine and bliss, you say, I don’t want to think about that!
No worries. The department stores will start thinking for you! Soon you’ll see those familiar pencil and notebook towers nearly blockading the aisles of stores like Target and Wal-Mart.
The demand for parents to provide school supplies increases each year, easily costing families between $100 and $200 per child—and that doesn’t include clothing costs! These days, students are not only required to show up that first week with the usual pencils, pens, notebooks, and calculators, but schools also ask that each student contribute classroom supplies like hand sanitizer, paper towels, and boxes of Kleenex.
For the approximately 15% of Ashland County’s residents living in poverty, these costs (think $400+ per child when adding clothing costs) are simply too great a burden. This is especially taxing on households run by single mothers, 50% of whom live below the poverty line in our state.
That’s why caring volunteers like you are so important. Alongside Associated Charities, you have an opportunity to guarantee that Ashland County’s school-age kids have what they need to succeed this year academically. Nearly half of all donations that we receive at Associated Charities come from valued donors like you.
This year, we are looking for basic school supplies and—because there’s nothing worse than showing up to school with less than adequate attire—clothing items to help our local school children meet educational expectations and dress for success.
Here are a few valuable ways you can add donation actualization to your August routine:
1. Each time you visit your local dollar store this next month spend just five extra dollars on school supplies. This won’t hit your budget hard, and the little extra spent will add up to a lot of pencils and hand sanitizer.
2. Speaking of things like hand sanitizer and Kleenex…don’t you usually purchase these items for yourself? Well, this month, for every box and bottle you grab off of the department store shelf for you, grab another for school!
3. And don’t keep all the donation enjoyment to yourself! Consider decorating a box or paper grocery bag (sequins, feathers, have fun!) with SCHOOL SUPPLIES in large letters. Set it beside the front door as a reminder to pick up a few things when you go out to run errands and add them to the box or bag when you return.
4. Need help coming up with ideas? Target.com has simplified your request by providing this nifty tool for looking up local school supply lists. Print your local school’s list and tack it to your refrigerator door so you’ll be reminded of what students need this coming school year.
5. In fact, Target has done you a lot of favors by also providing easy links to various schools items on this same page, including links to $1, $3, $5, and $10 items. On a budget yourself? Don’t assume you can’t make a difference! Simply shop that $1 page. You could benefit three children by spending only $3—and this will mean a lot to those three.
6. Backpacks are another school necessity that many families cannot afford. Keep your eye on back-to-school sales and purchase a backpack for one or two kids. Go a bit further and fill them up with pens, pencils, notebook, and a calculator if you can.
7. Finally, there’s nothing worse than showing up to school in less than adequate clothing. Every time you walk into your local department store, simply grab an item or two off the clearance racks and send local students to school this year with new shirts, jeans, socks, shoes, etc.
Together, we have the opportunity to put smiles on the faces of countless school-age children in our community.
Can you picture it?
That pre-teen boy ready to work hard and make new friends this year because he’s not embarrassed to show up at school in stained Ts and old Nikes. And, he’s got Sharpie highlighters to help him study, a sturdy binder to keep things organized, as well as a scientific calculator to make sure he scores well on tests in math.
Or that six-year-old girl outfitted with a new Wonder Woman backpack filled with Yoobi pencils, a pair of dull red scissors, a Finding Dory water bottle, and a notebook that says, “Believe in Yourself,”… just the message she needs to hear to excel in school.
Here in Ashland County, we believe in our kids, and we also believe that you want to join us in making sure this school year is their most positive school experience yet!