All Aboard!

So, today we are focused on getting our act together...

This next weekend, we should be having our first "Board of Directors" meeting! We have successfully created a logo, gotten together a few volunteers, kicked off our Facebook group, and began to work on a couple of ways to get a little cash coming in! See logo left.

We have made some executive decisions and have a lot left to make. Our members still seem excited, and we can't wait to kick off the actual DOING part. Please be patient. When you guys found out we were looking for volunteers was when we started organizing. (Well, the day before actually!) We are almost ready for our first members meeting. This is when we will discuss how we want to run our organization. We will also discuss the kick off of our organization, our debut into the community as a grassroots organization, possible fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and etc. Each and every one of us will have a say in what happens inside our group. We will compromise and work together to bring about a positive change.

Thanks again to Henny Donovan Motif in London for making our logo possible. She is excellent! Check out her wall art... It is actually really awesome.

Does anyone have an idea of how we should go about serving the plates? Should we bring them and set up the food and plates on the table "cafeteria style"? Should we pre-plate meals and bring them complete with silverware (err.. Plasticware) and just pass out? Should we each cook up a dish and bring it to a common place and plate it up? Should we cook in the kitchen offered to us? We still do not have a definite place to feed. I am trying to contact the people at the wall to see if we will be able to do it there. Homeless people are all out and about around dinner time, so I think this is the best meal for us to provide. (I'm only saying this because while I was homeless that's when everyone would eat... Some people ate lunch, but mostly everyone ate dinner!)

Does anyone have any inexpensive meal ideas? We will definitely need to ensure the meal includes certain things (i.e. a meat, veggies, fruit, carb, drink, dessert) Or whatever format we decide to follow.

The drink thing... Kevin (one of our volunteers) did some research and found that bottled water containers are in fact reusable. We could just label them as such, wash them with a baby bottle brush, dry them in the dishwasher on the top rack.

Does anyone have any ideas how we can recruit some new volunteers? Anyone you know who may be interested is welcome to check us out!

Subscribe to the blog and keep yourself up to date with all of the changes happening so fast here at NOLACares! Thank you for your time, and I look forward to working with each and every one of you.

Nola Cares

All;
I know I have not been emailing are in contact with most of you. I have been really busy behind the scenes trying to complete the Bi laws that myself and Jen are diligently working on. These will be complete soon. We will then start the process of working on Sop's ( Standard Operating Procedures ). We will then make a plan on setting up a first meeting. Where we will discuss the Bi laws and Sop's. This will also be a time for everyone to come together to get to know each other. We will attempt a monthly meeting if possible. Although I know things can get hectic sometimes, we will see how this goes. all of the Board will try to keep you up to date through this thread. I hope to meet each of you soon. I would like to say one last thing and that is THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Please Spread the word. The board of Directors will be announced shortly.


Henry
Nola Cares

Welcome All...

I'm Jen and this is our new volunteer group NOLACares' blog. I'm writing my first post, and must add that I am not a seasoned blogger. However, I have been meaning to start for quite some time so here goes...

First off...

What is NOLACares?

NOLACares is a volunteer group formed in and around New Orleans to help feed the homeless and to generally spread positivity in our community whenever and however we can. We will strive to do our parts in rebuilding the city each of us loves so dearly.

How was NOLACares born?

NOLACares was created when Henry and I met over an ad he'd posted for people to "help him help others." I responded to his ad, and within days we had our first 10 volunteers and lots of other useful help from the people of New Orleans.

Henry was inspired to create a volunteer group when his son asked him a simple question-- "Why is that man sleeping on the side of the road?" Henry didn't have the answer, but asked his son if he'd like to share the new drink he had in his cupholder. His four year old son happily obliged and Henry thought if his child could help out the homeless in our city, then HE could do something as well.

I, on the other hand, was inspired by my homelessness and drug addiction in my past. I knew two years ago when I got sober that I would do SOMETHING in honor of the people who helped me survive and who cared about me even when I didn't care about myself. I began taking classes working towards a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a concentration in Substance Abuse knowing that when I graduated I wanted to do non-profit work... However, this happened to come along in the middle so I jumped on board and haven't looked back. Hopefully, my classes and real-life experience will prepare me for a long-term career move in this line of work.

When Henry and I began brainstorming our ideas seemed to come together very easily. We decided on the name New Orleans Cares which has been shortened to NOLACares now, and we decided that we want to feed the hungry in the Downtown/Quarter areas. We even had a graphic donated to us, which we are able to use as a logo thanks to HENNY DONOVAN MOTIF in London, England!!!

We have started a Google Group and a Facebook Group to get the word out about our organization, and are open to any ideas anyone else has about networking!

When will NOLACares first meal debut?

That is up to every one of us involved. If anyone has a Sam's Club membership, it would probably be beneficial for us to shop somewhere like that until we can get some donors for the food products. I have a great deal of work left to do as far as finding out the Rules and Regulations of feeding homeless people in New Orleans, and any ties to the Homeless Coalition would be great... Let me know if you know someone. Long Story Short, we plan to serve hot meals, and we plan to do it A/S/A/P!

Volunteers

Please contact either Henry or Jen at new.orleans.cares@gmail.com or message us on one of our groups. Even if you can't volunteer you can add us. If your friends and family see, they may be able to spare an hour or so of their time, and anything helps!

I have a few ideas in case anyone is interested in helping get them off the ground:

1. Mardi Gras is coming up! If we can get some tourists to donate their hotel toiletries they don't use to us, we can bag them up in Gallon Ziplocs and create hygiene packs for the homeless. This was one on my most prized possessions when I was homeless!

2. Recycling Water Bottles. I read on another homeless feeding site that they would pass out water bottles and whenever the people were finished eating they'd throw the bottles into a separate bag and the volunteers would wash them out and fill them again the next week to cut back on costs. I have a water filter, so this would be absolutely no problem for me to handle if anyone thinks it would work. I, personally knowing a great deal of homeless people, think they'd be into it as many of them are eco-conscious to begin with!

3. Print Material. Anyone who is into flier design and/or brochures who could help us out with some design ideas would be a great deal of help. I may have a friend who is willing to do this, but I'm not sure yet! We will need fliers to recruit volunteers as well as to let the homeless know that we are feeding. We will need the brochures to seek donations of food or services and networking contacts.

So there you go! My first post. Let me know what you think, and I promise to get better as I go along!