Sharing kindness

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Hoover’s median household income is $81,038, according to 2017 U.S. Census data. Despite being a relatively affluent city overall, there are still families within its borders who may not know where their next meal is coming from.

About 6.5 percent of Hoover residents, according to the census, live in poverty. And a recent Community Health Equity Report, released by the Jefferson County Health Action Partnership in December, shows some communities in the city are considered food deserts due to lack of access to high-quality fresh food.

Since 2014, the organization Hoover Helps has assisted some of the 23 percent of children in the Hoover school system on free and reduced lunches by delivering packed bags of food for weekends. The program has grown from serving 80 children to 500, founder Greg Bishop said, and branched out to help similar programs start in other cities.

“We don’t really know the reason the kids are food insecure, and we don’t pass judgment on those things. … Kids don’t choose to be in those circumstances,” he said.

In February, however, Hoover Helps took a big step forward with the establishment of the Neighborhood Bridges program.

Neighborhood Bridges, first created in Ohio, is a program that allows school counselors to anonymously report family needs — from coats and shoes to mattresses and infant car seats — and connect with community members ready to fulfill that need.

Leading up to the Feb. 4 launch, Bishop said they opened the program a little early to fulfill some needs for families after an apartment fire in Riverchase. Bishop’s wife, Donna, called Neighborhood Bridges a “yearround Angel Tree,” and a visit to the website on Valentine’s Day showed every posted need had been fulfilled. 

“It’s really going to take off big,” Greg Bishop said.

As the Hoover Helps program has expanded, it has shown that hunger can be right next door — but so can the solution.

HEALTH EQUITY, FOOD DESERTS

The Community Health Equity Report released in December was a joint effort of organizations such as the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, United Way, the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, the Jefferson County Department of Health and the Collaborative for Health Equity.

The goal of the report, study leader Dr. Monica Baskin said, is to show that “place matters” — where people live in Jefferson County influences their access to care, education and resources for health, from economic stability to walking trails. That leads to varying occurrence rates for conditions like diabetes and heart disease and even life expectancy and infant mortality in different areas of Jefferson County.

Baskin said a particular focus of the report was on minority health in the county. The data used in the Health Equity Report showed that, in many cases, neighborhoods with mostly minority populations also tended to show higher poverty rates, higher frequency of diseases or disabilities and lower life expectancy.

“It really is a function of ‘What are the resources that are around you?’” Baskin said.

Hoover is one of the most diverse over-the-mountain communities, with 27 percent of its population being non-white. However, the city’s overall affluence and other factors in its quality of life mean that Hoover has a higher-than-average life expectancy, compared to the rest of the county, and generally low rates of individuals living with disabilities.

Not all neighborhoods of Hoover showed the same opportunities, however. The Health Equity Report breaks its data into census tracts within cities, and the Patton Chapel and Riverchase census tracts show poverty rates of 16.1 to 28.3 percent, while other tracts in Hoover are all below 16 percent and many are below 6 percent.

These two census tracts also have a slightly lower life expectancy (73.8 to 77.7 years) than the rest of Hoover’s census tracts, which all fall in the ranges of 77.8 to 82.5 years or 82.6 to 90.7 years.

Notably, one of the few “food deserts” in the over-the-mountain area, according to the Health Equity Report, is also in the Riverchase census tract.

The Community Health Equity Report’s definition of a food desert is based on U.S. Department of Agriculture criteria: a food desert is a low-income census tract where at least 500 people or a third of the population are more than a mile away from a grocery store or supermarket (this extends to 10 miles in rural areas). The USDA website estimates 6.2 percent of the U.S. population lives in areas that meet this criteria.

Kathryn Strickland with the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama said the key to food deserts is difficulty accessing produce and fresh food, not just packaged and processed foods that may be available at a corner gas station. Having fresh, healthy meals is critical to overall well-being and, for children, the ability to pay attention and perform well academically.

“There’s no one face to hunger or people struggling with access to healthy foods, and even within pockets of our communities that we may assume are well-resourced, there are pockets where people are struggling for three wholesome meals a day or, in some instances, grocery stores,” Strickland said.

“It is sadly an issue that is quite pervasive even in a community which may be overall well-resourced.”

Strickland said families even in Hoover may have to choose between paying their bills and filling their pantry, and their limited budget can put healthier but more costly groceries out of reach.

“It hurts them obviously from a health standpoint, but it affects their ability to participate in class, [to] learn,” Bishop said.

Baskin said the Health Action Partnership plans to share the results of its report with municipalities and organizations in 2019 in hopes of stirring action to address some of the unequal health opportunities across the county. While every city has limited resources, Baskin said “having this information front of mind” can help cities identify areas of particular need and prioritize their efforts.

“Disparities are harmful to all of us,” Baskin said

HELPING HANDS

While the Health Equity Report takes a broader look at overall health in the county, the Community Food Bank and Hoover Helps, which is one of the Food Bank’s local partners, work on the more specific problem of hunger in specific locations.

For instance, Strickland said Bluff Park United Methodist Church provides more than 39,000 pounds of food and Green Valley Baptist Church provides more than 43,000 pounds each year for the Community Food Bank’s emergency food pantry services.

These churches are also among the 15 organizations that participate in Hoover Helps’ backpack feeding program.

Each organization in Hoover Helps has its own community of kids to take care of, Greg Bishop said. Prince of Peace Catholic Church, for instance, has grown from feeding 40 kids to 175. 

“They’re the ones doing the heavy lifting” of buying and delivering food, Bishop said of the participating groups.

Green Valley Baptist packs enough bags to provide for 30 children each week at Green Valley Elementary, and organizer Cindy Partlow said the church recently increased its contribution at the school counselor’s request. The church also has a monthly food bank and clothes closet.

“There are still Hoover kids who are hungry and who need food,” Partlow said.

Bluff Park UMC started its program for Gwin Elementary before Hoover Helps and later joined forces with Bishop’s organization. Crystal Bowles, whose Sunday school class organizes the packing dates, said it has become a larger church effort. Other individuals and classes will offer donations and time, and children from the church show up to help pack the backpacks.

“Even this small type of program could help with reduced absentees, improve their attention span, increase their self esteem,” Bowles said.

“It’s just such a small gesture, but to see the impact it has – it’s huge.”

Bowles said she loves checking in with Gwin’s counselor to see the impact the weekend backpacks have on the children.

Hoover Helps relies on an annual fundraiser at the Hoover vs. Spain Park football game each year, as well as volunteer efforts and donations, to fund its work. It takes $180 to feed one child on weekends through the school year.

Counselors at Hoover schools identify children at risk of food insecurity, and Hoover Helps member organizations step up to provide them backpacks of meals to take home on weekends. The bags include food chosen by nutritionists that is simple enough that kids can prepare meals themselves, Bishop said.

For some older kids, Hoover Helps works with restaurants and grocery stores to provide gift cards that counselors can hand out.

In summer 2018, Hoover Helps partnered with the school system’s Child Nutrition Program and Hoover Public Library to create a summer feeding program, with a Meals in Motion school bus full of meals that would show up to at the library all summer long. Bishop said they served 8,700 meals over the summer and also were able to provide food packages with gift cards and holiday hams or turkeys to 100 families.

Hoover Helps has also been able to assist similar programs starting up in places like Glen Iris, Hueytown and Fultondale, Bishop said.

“We’ve been a facilitator in helping them get started,” he said.

BUILDING BRIDGES

The new Neighborhood Bridges program is a turning point for Hoover Helps, Bishop said.

The idea came from Hoover resident David Bannister, whose brother started the initial program in Ohio. Community members can sign up to receive alerts from the program when a school counselor has identified a new need for one of their students or families, Bannister said.

It’s about “looking after the suburban children … that go to school every day without the basic necessities,” he said.

The 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 who need them.

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. Some recently met needs, according to the Neighborhood Bridges website, include furnishings for a formerly homeless family, children’s shoes and a refrigerator.

In addition to sending out email and social media alerts, all of the alerts are listed on the website under “Opportunities for Kindness.” Each comes with a simple button to press: “I Can Help.”

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.”

Neighborhood Bridges had “tremendous effect” in Westerville, its first community, and Bannister is excited to bring it to Hoover and eventually expand it to similar programs in the county or eventually in the state.

Bishop said that while Hoover Helps’ core mission will remain the same, he’s looking forward to being able to serve a much broader range of needs.

“Now, it’s not just going to be hunger,” Bishop said.

Learn more at hooverhelps.org and neighborhoodbridges.org. The full Community Health Equity report, including maps of data, can be found at healthactionpartnership.org.