Our own Sarah Huelskoetter is leading an effort to have everyone who can donate their stimulus checks. Sarah works with people who are being evicted, and has identified three local charities that are good at quickly responding to food and housing needs. The three organizations that she suggests are listed below. We also have a long-term relationship with Neighborhood Services, Inc. (NSI) and recommend donating stimulus checks to them, or to any charity you know of personally that is dedicated to helping people in need locally.

Here are Sarah’s three suggestions:

Impact Christian Ministries has been delivering food and PPE to people who are shut in or quarantined and don’t have enough to eat throughout the pandemic. They are trying to raise money for a refrigerated delivery truck that they can use instead of the parishioners having to make as many trips in their personal cars. They have an offer for a truck that is $5,500, which is a steal. https://www.gofundme.com/f/impact-christian-ministries-needs-help

Central Community House is one of the settlement houses on the Near East Side, by Children’s, and they provide a lot of community assistance in the form of discretionary funds as well as food and etc. They only do financial assistance for people in their ZIP code area, but are really, really good at helping people in a way that makes sense rather than in just a cookie-cutter, red-tape filled bureaucratic way.

C.R.A.C.K. (Christ Resurrects After Crack Kills) House Ministries is also in Linden and they applied for & distributed a grant a couple months ago for rent & utility assistance. They do a meal program and also give out discretionary funding to those in really tight situations.