ECHO's Needs for July, and August

Since ECHO has moved to the “food choice” mode, which allows clients to select the food they will actually use, the food room has had to purchase many items not normally donated. We can help! Starting Sunday, June 21, there will be bags in the narthex with lists of “most needed food” attached. Please take a bag and return it with any of the listed items. Please note that ECHO cannot use expired items or perishable ones. If you desire to donate perishable items, please take them directly to ECHO. Thank you!

ECHO’s Backpack Program Kicks Off

School is out for summer and that means it's time for ECHO to start packing backpacks full of supplies for next year! We will pack 1,400 backpacks this summer and we need your help to provide all the brand new supplies to fill them. We have done this for many years and find that we are most successful when we use a very specific list of items. A partial list is included below. The full list can be found on our website, echo-inc.org/donate. Click on "Seasonal Programs” and scroll down to find the list of needed school supplies. If you prefer to shop online and have your donations delivered directly to ECHO, you can find our Amazon Wishlist at echo-inc.org/donate, click on “Donate Goods” then click on “Amazon Wishlist.” We DO NOT currently need white glue or wide rule spiral notebooks. We DO NEED high school size backpacks, Ticonderoga #2 yellow pencils, mechanical pencils, pink pearl erasers, college rule ONLY SPIRAL notebooks, college rule loose leaf paper, plastic pencil boxes, DRY ERASE thin tip markers, 3 x 5 lined index cards, and more things on the list.

Share Fresh Food for ECHO at the Kingstowne Farmers Market

The Nourish Your Neighbor program at the Kingstowne Farmers Market, 5870 Kingstowne Towne Center, Alexandria, on July 31, August 28, September 25, and October 23, will allow shoppers to donate purchases of fresh produce that will be given to ECHO’s Food Pantry. Just look for Nourish Your Neighbor bins!

ECHO’s Summer Needs

ECHO’s Food Pantry hopes donors will remember that when children are out of school for summer, there is extra pressure on families who are experiencing financial hardship. Children do not have the same access to free and reduced price meals that are provided at school. They play outside, use more energy and get hungrier, as those of us who have growing youngsters know. In the past, ECHO was able to meet food requests with donated, non-perishable foods and some purchases of frozen and refrigerated foods. Now, in addition to donated food items, ECHO is purchasing about 40% of the food we distribute to meet what we believe is basic need in our community. This is not a local situation. Food banks and feeding organizations everywhere speak of the strain. ECHO will continue to combat hunger in our community. We ask our donors to continue to help us. 

Currently, the Food Pantry needs Masa flour, pancake mix, syrup, peanut butter, granulated sugar, cereal, spaghetti sauce, pasta, adult toothbrushes, shampoo, bath soap, and laundry detergent. 

ECHO's clothing department will be transitioning back to fall and winter clothes in late August, so please hold onto your cold-weather items until then. Year-round, we always appreciate donations of NEW socks and underwear for men, women, boys and girls. We do not distribute any used socks or underwear. We also have a high demand for new or very gently used athletic shoes in all sizes for boys and girls. For men, we especially need shoes in sizes 7-9.

The Housewares Department is currently out of bathmats, and is low on medium size pots and king and queen size comforters.

Volunteer Opportunities

While ECHO has a few vacancies for direct client-involvement positions and for donation management positions for people interested in a weekly commitment for a 3-hour morning shift or a 2-hour evening shift, we are particularly interested in developing a team of people to work with teen volunteers. ECHO opens a limited number of slots for teens on Wednesday evenings during the school year to accomplish a variety of hands-on tasks. We need adults to coordinate with ECHO program managers to understand the tasks in order to explain them to the teens and supervise their efforts. The work is important to ECHO, and it is important, we believe, in conveying to young people the scope of what it takes to help people in need in a community. This work also allows teens to earn service hours that are often required for their classes or honor societies. 

We need four or five—or more—people who also believe that allowing young people to participate in community service is important, and who could give two-and-a-half hours a couple of Wednesday evenings a month to demonstrate that. Couples, or friends, or club members are welcome to join this effort together. In fact, it might be more fun that way. If you want to find out more, contact our Volunteer Coordinator through our website at www.echo-inc.org/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/. 

Upcoming Dates to Note

July 11 - Saturday Opening
July 15 - Executive Committee Meeting
August 1 - Saturday Opening
August 17-19 Change to Fall/Winter Clothing

Congregational and Other Food Drives 
June - St. Mark’s Lutheran, Westwood Baptist

For more information about ECHO on the following topics, please click any of the links below:
How to Get Help from ECHO
Donate Money
Find Us on Instagram
Find Us on Facebook 
ECHO Food and Clothing Amazon Wish List