Easter Baskets from Some Exceptional Friends

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

Each year at about this time, we look forward to a festive spring donation from Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church. Participants in Newlonsburg's MINTEC (Ministry to Exceptional Citizens) program lovingly make Easter baskets for EECM.


MINTEC is an adult education class for adults with mental handicaps. They meet Sunday mornings for class, and every other Thursday afternoon for fellowship, a Bible lesson, singing and a meal.

Each Easter Basket contains hand-made crafts and candy and are greatly enjoyed by those lucky clients who receive them.

Thanks to MINTEC teacher Jill for thinking of us!

A Great Food Drive Idea

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

Our friends at Allegheny Valley Bank are once again hosting a food drive to support EECM's Have a Heart for Hunger campaign. (Last year's drive collected more than 500 pounds of food!)

This year, to help build excitement about the food drive and to encourage families to participate, they've organized a coloring contest. They created a Food Pyramid coloring sheet that children are invited to color and return to the bank, along with a non-perishable food donation. They'll be handing out prizes to participants at the end of the month.

I'm always impressed by the enthusiasm and creativity of the Allegheny Valley Bank team. (Remember their urban gardening project?) This is just another great example.

Thanks to everyone at AVB for your support of East End Cooperative Ministry!

We Heart Our Volunteers!

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

For many people, one of the event highlights of this year's Have a Heart for Hunger campaign was the volunteer appreciation luncheon, held on March 13th.

More than 40 of our loyal volunteers gathered at EECM's dining room for fellowship and a special meal. EECM staff transformed our humble dining room into a thing of beauty with tablecloths, flowers, and lighting.


As a special treat for everyone, we invited our regular Soup Kitchen guests to join in the festivities (the Kitchen is not normally open on a Saturday). This was a wonderful opportunity for our volunteers to spend some time in relaxed conversation with the people they ordinarily serve.


Each volunteer was honored with a special certificate and an engraved key chain, reminding them that they are all Shining Stars.


The best part of the event, though, may have been the chocolate fondue fountain...

Pancakes in the PM

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

The most commonly-heard refrain on the night of March 4th was: "I didn't eat lunch, because I knew I was coming here..."

The "here" in question was P&G Pamela's Diner in the Strip, host to the second annual Pancakes in the PM benefit dinner supporting EECM's Have a Heart for Hunger campaign. This popular event drew more than 80 philanthropicaly-minded pancake lovers and raised more than $2,000 for EECM's Hunger Programs.


Guests mingled and chatted while enjoying some of Pamela's signature favorites, such as homefries and Croissant French toast casserole.

The "make your own pancake" bar was also very popular.


Throughout the evening -- when they could be pried away from the buffet line -- attendees learned more about EECM and signed up for several volunteer opportunities.

A HUGE thanks to Pam and Gail and everyone at Pamela's for your generosity and pizazz that made the event a success.

A Visit from a Magic Dragon

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

On Monday, EECM had the great pleasure of hosting Peter Yarrow of "Peter, Paul and Mary." Peter has personal connections to one of our member congregations, East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and they managed to arrange for him to do a benefit concert for EECM's Have a Heart for Hunger campaign.

Admission to the concert was free, but the voluntary offering we collected raised more than $4,000 for EECM's Food Pantry, Soup Kitchen, and Meals on Wheels programs. Such is the power of great music for a great cause!

Peter performed for nearly two hours in front of a crowd of more than 400 enthusiastic fans. I managed to capture a few video clips. The first is of the perennial favorite: "Puff the Magic Dragon."

The second video is a newer song that has become the musical soundtrack to Peter's current project -- Operation Respect -- a fantastic organization dedicated to combating bullying. "Don't Laugh at Me" is powerful. See for yourself.

Top 'O the Noon Hour to You!

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

Corned beef and shamrocks and fiddles, oh my! Today we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at the Soup Kitchen as part of our ongoing Have a Heart for Hunger activities (more activity-related-posts coming soon).


East End Cooperative Ministry's Soup Kitchen is open Monday through Friday and offers a free noon meal to anyone who comes by. The food is always good, but today our cook went all-out with 105 pounds of corned beef, mountains of mashed potatoes, and all the cabbage you could eat. We also had excellent rye bread, lending itself to a delicious corned beef sandwich (of which I ate two). Oh! And chocolate chip cookies. Big Chocolate Chip Cookies.


In addition to serving this special meal, we also decked out the Soup Kitchen with much festive adornment, thanks to the help of some loyal volunteers and donors. The good people of Giant Eagle Market District donated wall shamrocks, banners, crepe paper, and balloons. EECM Super Volunteer, Trish, rallied her troops and produced terracotta pots decorated by a local brownie troop (with help from Trish's daughters) from which sprang shamrocks and other decorations. There were also printed Irish blessings for each table.


The final touch to the merriment was lively Irish music, complements of a satellite radio. The Soup Kitchen is always open to the entire community, but today we made a special effort to invite "non-regulars" to join us. The result was a great mix of EECM staff, board members, volunteers, Soup Kitchen regulars, and friends all chowing down on great Irish fare and tapping their toes to the music.