Press releases

House of Hope resumes summer
food supply to Boys & Girls Clubs

PRESS RELEASE DATE: JUNE 1, 2010

Read more about the Safety Net Challenge

House of Hope is resuming its delivery of food to Boys and Girls Clubs in Martin County to help children and their families have the staples needed for meals throughout the summer.

The service is a continuation of a program begun last year thanks to a grant that helped House of Hope expand its food bank outreach throughout the second half of 2009.

Last summer, House of Hope received $32,291 through the Safety Net Challenge – a matching grant campaign conducted in May 2009 by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties and its partners.

Thanks to judicious spending and additional credits from the Treasure Coast Food Bank, House of Hope has funds remaining to continue helping this summer, when many families struggle because of cutbacks in working hours in our seasonal economy.

Every two weeks, House of Hope will deliver 3,000 pounds of food to Boys and Girls Clubs to help children who are not already enrolled in the Treasure Coast Food Bank’s BackPack Program. 

House of Hope volunteers will sort the food into bags that include nonperishable items such as vegetables, soup, fruit, meat, tomato products and pasta.

The number of families served in each location is as follows: Hobe Sound, 25; Indiantown, 45; East Stuart, 50; Port Salerno, 60; and Palm City, 25.

This arrangement helps to ensure that more families have supplies available for nutritious meals – especially on weekends when children do not have a school-based meal. Last year, the House of Hope effort helped supplement 1,440 families of Boys & Girls Clubs members from August through December 2009.

That figure was in addition to the 12,982 requests for food that House of Hope fulfilled last year through its regular Food Pantry program in Stuart, Hobe Sound, Indiantown and Jensen Beach.

House of Hope is the largest provider of food to people in need in Martin County. The agency also provides emergency financial assistance, clothing and household necessities, and long-term case management services.

For more information about House of Hope, call (772) 286-4673 or visit www.hohmartin.org. Resources for conducting a food drive are also available online.