Did you eat something healthy today? If so, you’re one of the lucky ones.  Having the freedom and good fortune to choose what we eat is something that we don’t often think about but many Americans aren’t afforded that luxury. In fact there are thousands of homebound seniors and chronically ill people of all ages right here in  Atlanta that don’t have access to basic nutritious meals.

That is what Atlanta based Open Hand has been addressing for nearly 22 years. Their mission is to help people prevent or better manage chronic disease through Comprehensive Nutrition Care™, which includes home-delivered meals and nutrition education. Their groundbreaking program is orchestrated by a team of staff members, chefs, registered dietitians and of course a dedicated volunteer base.

AtlantaHelps recently met with Rosalind Tucker,  Open Hand’s Director of Volunteer Services, to get a “day in the life” view of the organization. Here’s what she shared:

“Open Hand produces nearly 5,000 meals a day. Volunteers are at the heart of our operation and they can be seen packing and delivering meals everyday. They work alongside chefs and cooks who plan & cook exceptional meals as well as registered dieticians that provide nutrition counseling in 1:1 and group settings. The atmosphere is filled with music and camaraderie as volunteers from 8 years of age to 92 years of age share stories and laughter knowing how greatly their efforts will impact people in need.”

In addition to meal packing and delivery other volunteer opportunities include assisting with health & wellness programs at senior centers, data entry, and special events support.  Open Hand is also looking for a volunteer marketer to assist with marketing efforts including social media campaigns. For more information on volunteer opportunities call 404-872-2707 or email rtucker@projectopenhand.org.

AtlantaHelps has adopted Open Hand as our June non-profit. Here’s how you can participate:

Tickets are $10.00 per person and we will be meeting at 7:00 PM at the front door of Smiths Olde Bar.

Smiths Olde Bar
http://www.smithsoldebar.com
1578 Piedmont Avenue Northeast
Atlanta, GA 30324-5232
(404) 875-1522

Feel free to call Atlantahelps 2010 co-chair (Laura Nolte, @laura_nolte) with questions at 678-575-1522.

This event benefits The Songs for Kids Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation that brings musicians year-round to hospitals and special needs kids camps. Go to http://www.songsforkidsfoundation.org to learn more about this outstanding organization and this incredibly fun event!

Please note that we will post information about ticket costs and musical acts as it becomes available. In the past tickets have cost between $10 – $20 depending on which musical acts are participating on a given evening. In the meantime, please RSVP at the AtlantaHelps facebook event page

Another great event for our female Atlantahelpers this month is the Clothing Swap to benefit Dress for Success. Please check out the flyer for the event and contact Brandy (contact info is in the flyer) if you are able to go and would like to be added to the evite. Sounds like a fun time for a great cause!

Kate’s Club, located at 1330 West Peachtree Street, N.W. Suite 520 Atlanta, GA 30309,  is a non-profit organization that empowers children and teens facing life after the death of a parent or sibling. By creating friendships with kids and young adults that share the experience, Kate’s Club guides children through their grief journey in a comfortable, safe, and uplifting setting.  The organization focuses on helping Atlanta area children who have lost a parent before the age of 18.  Kate’s Club founder Kate Atwood, who lost her mother at age 12, founded the organization about six years ago and since then it has grown from an initial group of six children to now serving almost 300 kids annually.

Kate’s Club is open to any school-aged child in the Atlanta metro area who’s lost a parent or sibling. Most members are referred via word of mouth or community partnerships; there are no fees. In addition to spending time with other kids in the same situation, club members engage in support group sessions led by professional therapists. More lighthearted events include the club’s monthly outings to Braves games, museums, tree climbing venues and even improv studios.

Atlantahelps will be supporting Kate’s Club by conducting a drive to gather camp supplies for Camp Good Mourning, which will be held August 6-8th this year. The drive will be held at the organization’s colorful new midtown clubhouse on Tuesday, March 23 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM.  We’ll be collecting wish list items, touring the club house and socializing. Wish list items includes board games, musical instruments, arts & crafts supplies and snacks – Click here to see the full wish list (pdf).

We are largely targeting Tech High School for the book drive.  From my summer post: Tech High is an innovative charter school whose mission is to maximize the learning of every student.  It delivers a comprehensive, integrated curriculum with a focus on math, science, technology, and communication.  Project-based activities and real world applications make learning relevant.  

Tech High is especially looking for books which relate to Tech High’s mission of science, math, and business leadership.  So non-fiction, reference books, etc. would be great, but they’ll also take other books that make sense for a high school library — literature, history, even some fiction.

And, as we said/did over the summer, don’t be shy about bringing any books to donate even if they don’t fit Tech High’s needs, because any books that aren’t a good fit for them will be given to Doc Bombay’s, which sells used books to benefit Noah’s Ark,  or donated to Better World Books, which uses (donates from) their proceeds to fund literacy programs around the world.

Special thanks, again, to Stephen Fleming who brought this great school to our attention and made the introduction to the Tech High principal.

So, with that, we decided we wanted to announce the next few months in advance, in the interest of it not getting away from us  like it has the last couple of months:

September, with two opportunities:

cafe458: As many of you know this is a cause to help homeless people, and all proceeds go to the Samaritan House of Atlanta.  It’s a delicious (and simple) way to do something good for your community. We’ll be there this Sunday morning (9/27) at 10am, and we have reservations for 12, so please come on out and join us if  you can!

hopeATL: Many Atlantans are struggling after the terrible storms from the last week, and the estimates are that 5000 have lost everything.  Please donate to help at one of the locations listed on their website.  We will not try to organize anything to bring donations together from Atlantahelps on this one but will take our own donations over this weekend Sunday after brunch.  However, if anyone wants to get items to us either at or before brunch that morning I will make sure they get to the donation center (in case that makes it easier on anyone to donate).

October:

Book drive:  A lot of folks have let me know they couldn’t make it to the book drive we held over the summer, and they still want to give, so we’re organizing another book drive to benefit Tech High, Noah’s Ark, and (for any that don’t work for those two options) Better World Books.  We’ll hold a get together at our house with delicious treats and some fun drinks on October 29 to allow everyone to bring their donations by.  More on that as it gets closer.

November:

We’re hoping to organize a pot-luck dinner and food drive for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.  We will either hold the dinner and food drive at the Food Bank, or at our house, still TBD.  This will occur on 11/19 (early!) due to the Thanksgiving holiday being the next week.  I hope we’ll see everyone together to celebrate a year of giving.

December:

Planning!  I/we need help deciding what’s next for Atlantahelps, and whether to continue it into 2010.  Some ideas that have come up include creating a board that will help plan events, partnering with HandsOnAtlanta to hold our events once a month, etc..  I’m hoping everyone will help me decide what should come next!  We will  probably meet up at Octane for this meeting, and I’m looking to hold it on Thursday, 12/17.

That’s all for now!  I hope to see everyone this Sunday, but if you can’t make it out I hope you’ll consider giving to hopeATL or vising cafe458 on your own!