Wednesday, May 27, 2009

From Susan Newton

From: slnewton@comcast.net [mailto:slnewton@comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:49 PM
To: Bob Judge
Cc: lovethesnow@comcast.net
Subject: Re: Food Pantry meeting update

Hi Bob and Sarah,

...

Two quick things now, though:

1) It's striking the enormous amount of need already documented by members of our group--your discussions, Bob, with the Girls Treatment/RFK director; Norma's conversations with Jesse's House--and the eagerness of local groups for our help. The needs in South Hadley are virtually invisible compared to many of our neighbor communities, or at least they are to me. Our subcommittee and the DTC as a whole clearly have their work cut out for them.

2) We shouldn't forget the skill set of SH DTC members when thinking about how we can best serve. In addition to "normal" volunteer activities, some of us have high tech skills (both of you, for example) that could come in handy; for lack of a better descriptor, I'm now a professional grantwriter, so may be of some help to nonprofits in that way; some members have marketing expertise that could help nonprofits extend their services; etc. So in the case of some groups, we should be prepared to think outside the box about how to match our potential contributions to specific volunteer opportunities, and may need to suggest those directly to the groups we end up helping. This might also pull in more volunteers from the DTC, especially those who aren't good at, or aren't comfortable with, direct service provision.

All best,
Susan