Hoover Helps to launch new community program for families in need
Hoover Helps will take a big step forward in its community assistance work next month, with the launch of Neighborhood Bridges.
Neighborhood Bridges is a technology-based system to connect local donors with families in need of clothes, food or household goods. It started in Ohio, and Hoover resident David Bannister, whose brother created the program, brought the idea to Hoover Helps.
Greg Bishop founded Hoover Helps, which provides backpacks of weekend meals and snacks for children on free and reduced lunches in Hoover schools, in 2014. The program now has 15 organizations providing meals for about 500 students.
Around 23 percent of Hoover students are on free and reduced lunches, according to the school system.
Hoover Helps also participated in summer and holiday meal programs for Hoover children, Bishop said. The Meals in Motion project with the school system’s Child Nutrition Program and Hoover Public Library served 8,700 meals over the summer.
Neighborhood Bridges will enable Hoover school counselors to submit needs of students and families to the website, where they will then be shared via email and social media alerts to people who are interested in filling those needs.
The program will go beyond food to necessary items like clothes, shoes, mattresses, infant car seats, furniture and more for families that are low-income or have a sudden need, such as after a house fire or medical emergency.
It’s about “looking after the suburban children … that go to school every day without the basic necessities,” Bannister said.
Once a community member confirms they will fulfill a particular need, items can be dropped off at a designated participating location, such as one of Hoover’s fire departments, to then be taken to the families.
The Ohio program has grown so popular, Bishop said, that some of the needs are met almost as soon as the alerts are sent out.
Bannister said a program like Neighborhood Bridges takes away many of the uncertainties of online giving. Donors can know they are giving to vetted, trustworthy people and that their gifts will reach the intended recipient.
“They want to give, they want to help and so forth but they don’t know how,” said Steve McClinton, who serves on the Hoover City Schools Foundation and the Hoover Helps board.
When given the right opportunity, Bannister said, “the kindness just explodes.”
Donna Bishop, Greg's wife, compared Neighborhood Bridges to a "yearlong Angel Tree."
Hoover Helps has set a tentative launch date for Neighborhood Bridges in early February. While the website for the Hoover program is not yet active, more information about Neighborhood Bridges can be found at neighborhoodbridges.org.
Learn more about Hoover Helps' other programs to feed children at hooverhelps.org.