ECHO's Needs for April and May

Do You Enjoy Working with Teens?

ECHO needs a few adults who enjoy the company of young people to volunteer with the Teen Program on one or two Wednesday evenings a month. A small group of community service-minded high schoolers volunteer on Wednesday evenings during the school year to help keep our donations organized. ECHO needs a few more adults to work with and supervise this great group of young people. The chair of the Teen Program will be happy to orient new volunteers. 

In addition, there are a few volunteer openings on specific days for people who want to work directly with clients or those who want to work with donations. Want more info? Contact our Volunteer Coordinator through our website at www.echo-inc.org/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/. 

Join the Letter Carriers to Stamp Out Hunger

On Saturday, May 9, the Letter Carriers of the US Postal Service will collect non-perishable food for the hungry in thousands of communities across the country, making “Stamp Out Hunger” the largest one-day food drive in the US. Local Post Offices near ECHO will be collecting for ECHO’s Food Pantry and you can participate. Leave a bag of non-perishable foods and personal hygiene items by your mailbox before mail delivery on May 9. Your letter carrier will collect it at the time of delivery. 

The importance of this annual drive to ECHO cannot be overemphasized. Schools and organizations often take a break from organizing food drives during the summer. Many regular ECHO donors go on vacation. Food donations drop, but hunger does not, so keeping our Food Pantry stocked in summer is a challenge. We count on the generosity of local postal patrons as well as the hard work of the letter carriers to keep doing our mission of combatting hunger in our community.

Volunteer Opportunities

ECHO is fortunate to be a place where volunteers join, enjoy their work and their co-workers, and often stay for a long time—some for decades! We therefore often have limited volunteer openings. Currently we have a few morning slots for work with donations, and our evening slots are filled except that we need a few adults to help supervise the Teen Program on Wednesday evenings. A small group of community service-minded high schoolers volunteer on Wednesday evenings during the school year to help keep our donations organized. ECHO needs a few more adults to work with this great group of young people. The chair of the Teen Program will be happy to orient new volunteers. 

Want more info about volunteering at ECHO? Contact our Volunteer Coordinator through our website at www.echo-inc.org/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/. 

Needed Now at ECHO

Spring arrived in the clothing room in mid-March when we made our changeover from fall and winter items to clothing for spring and summer. As you talk to friends and neighbors about making donations to ECHO, please ask them to hold onto their warm clothes for now and plan to donate after mid-August. We have limited space to store clothing for cold weather.

Clothing that is needed now includes short-sleeve t-shirts for men in small and medium sizes, shoes for men in sizes 7 and 8, and athletic shoes for children of all sizes. Donations of packaged underwear and socks for men and boys are always helpful as we only distribute NEW underwear and socks to our clients.

The Food Pantry’s most needed food and personal hygiene items currently are bagged beans (especially red, black, and garbanzo), spaghetti sauce, instant coffee, green tea, canned fruit, shampoo, facial tissue, and toilet tissue.

ECHO is open to receive donations of household goods, clothing and non-perishable food from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday through Friday, and from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, as well as one Saturday morning a month which varies, but is noted on our website www.echo-inc.org. Receipts are cheerfully offered and volunteers are glad to help donors with boxes and bags. Look for the "Donation Door" sign on the west side of the building.

Upcoming Dates to Note

May 2 - Saturday Opening
May 9 - Letter Carriers Food Drive
May 25 - Closed for Memorial Day
June 6 - Saturday Opening
June 19 - Closed for Juneteenth holiday

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