NEWS

 

We wish we had better news to start the month of May, but the numbers tell the story: more people in our area need access to food than we could have anticipated. During the month of March, we saw a 57% increase in the number of client households that visited the Ada Jenkins Center food pantry (70 households in February; 110 in March). Right now, the toiletries section of our pantry is nearly bare. Our clients need:

• Toothpaste
• Toothbrushes
• Shampoo (full size)
• Deodorant (full size)
• Toilet tissue

Please check out our Amazon wishlist for other items our clients need.  Food pantry volunteers are onsite Tuesday-Thursday (9:30-11:30am) to accept donations at the food pantry entrance at the back of our building.

Think homelessness isn’t a part of our community? Think again. While the Lake Norman area generally is considered affluent, more than 5% of our neighbors live below the Federal Poverty Level: $27,750 for a family of four.  If you’re Interested in learning more, please join us for one of our monthly Need in the North van tours of the underserved neighborhoods in the north Mecklenburg towns of Cornelius, Davidson, and Huntersville. Tours run 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., starting and ending at the Ada Jenkins Center. Sign up here.

Know someone who’s on the lookout for a new career? Please direct them to our Careers web page to learn about the following open positions:

• LEARN Works After school Enrichment Teacher
• Receptionist

And finally:  We say ‘thanks’ to everyone who volunteered with our 2023 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which provided free tax preparation for families earning $60,000 or less. Through April 1–and that doesn’t include the final two weekends of tax season!– our VITA volunteers prepared 309 tax returns for area families, with refunds totaling $287,774 (an average return of  $931.31 per family). We couldn’t do it without our amazing volunteers, and we are incredibly grateful for their help.