Meet Our New Volunteer Manager

This week, we wanted to introduce you to the newest member of our staff – Sean Nickelberry! Sean joined Target Hunger a few weeks ago as our Volunteer Manager. He comes to us from Communities In Schools, and we’re so excited to see where he takes our volunteer program.

To get to know him a little better, we sat down with Sean to ask 10 fun questions. Hear what he had to say!

Look for our Volunteer Manager Sean Nickelberry next time you volunteer with us!

Q:  What’s your favorite movie?

A:   My favorite movie of all-time is Coming to America! I’m a huge Eddie Murphy fan and he’s one of my top-three favorite actors.

Q:  What are 3 words that best describe you?

A:   GIVING, loving, focused

Q:  What is one thing you could not go a day without?

A:   I cannot go one day without talking to my mom.

Q:  What’s your favorite family recipe?

A:   I have a family secret teacake recipe that is amazing!

Q:  What is your proudest accomplishment?

A:   My proudest moment was being ordained and serving in pastoral ministry.

Q:  What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

A:   Sleeping! When not sleeping, I would either go fishing or spending the day poolside.

Q:  Which famous person in history would you want to spend the day with?

A:   I would love to have met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I would spend the day soaking in so much wisdom and knowledge from him.

Q:  What’s on your bucket list?

A:   I am determined to complete two books I have been struggling to write for years. I also would love to go back to school to earn my Doctorate of Ministry degree.

Q:  Where do you most want to visit in the world?

A:   I would love to visit several countries on the continent of Africa. I have never been and dream of going someday.

Q:  If you were a super-hero, what powers would you have?

A:   If I were a super-hero, I would love to have the powers to be able to run super-fast, fly, unimaginable strength, and be invisible.

Get to know Sean even better by volunteering with us. Volunteer opportunities can be found here or by contacting Sean at volunteer@targethunger.org.

We hope to see you soon!

Blooming at the Shotwell Garden

The land the garden now sits on began as an overgrown parking lot.

Started from the Ground Up…

Last week, we officially opened our second garden- the Green Mountain Energy Shotwell Garden, which is located at Target Hunger’s main warehouse on Shotwell Street. This wonderful Garden is all thanks to our partner – Green Mountain Energy Sun Club who underwrote a generous grant for the project. The Garden has long been in the works. Originally planned to open at the end of 2020, the Garden hit a few hurdles before it was ready. COVID brought our focus strictly to our Disaster Distributions as the best way to serve the community members. Then the Winter Storm hit, freezing most of the seedlings that were planted earlier in the year and bursting some of the irrigation pipes. Now, we are happy to say the Garden is growing and thriving!

Now the land is home to our beautiful container garden!

Designed with sustainability in mind, what was once an overgrown lot is now an innovative above-ground container garden comprised of 2,400 crates. Placed between railroad tracks on soil prone to contamination, the crates rest on benches above the ground and allow our vegetables to thrive in healthy soil. The Garden is watered via a soft irrigation system that pulls water from a 3,000-gallon rainwater catchment system. The water tank collects water from the roof of a nearby shed – just 1 inch of rainwater collected will fill the tank! The Garden also features a greenhouse for seedlings and a composting facility to help us manage vegetation waste.

L to R: Stacy Mehlhoff, Executive Director of Green Mountain Energy Sun Club; Lupe Rodas, Garden Coordinator at Target Hunger; Johnny Richardson, Program Manager at Green Mountain Energy Sun Club; Mark Ahysen, Garden Assistant at Target Hunger

Now, we’re Looking to the Future!

We anticipate that this Garden will produce approximately 10,000 pounds of fresh vegetables each year, allowing us to serve 400 families in northeast Houston. Beyond the food, we are hoping to make this Garden a place for education and community growth. Our aim is that this space will provide community members the opportunity to see where their food is grown and how to grow it themselves. We also want to use this Garden to teach the community how to turn the vegetables produced into healthy and affordable meals. It will be another opportunity to teach self-sufficiency skills and treat the root causes of hunger.

Sandy Wicoff, our CEO, receiving a Resolution from Lawrence Battle from the office of Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis.

We want to say a big thank you to everyone who attended last week’s Open House. We received an outpouring of support from community leaders, including a Resolution from Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. As we continue to grow the Garden, we hope you will visit to see the progress. A space that began as a parking lot is now a thriving garden full of squash, tomatoes, beans, and onions. As with our Goffney Garden, community members are welcome to come and volunteer with us! Gardening is a great team builder for groups and our outdoor picnic tables provide the perfect space for a breakfast or lunch while volunteering. If you are interested in volunteering please contact our Volunteer Manager, Sean Nickelberry at volunteer@targethunger.org or sign-up here.

We hope to see you at the Garden soon!

Partnerships to Serve Our Seniors

One of our senior clients pre-pandemic. We always love an opportunity to visit them at home!

Delivering Much Needed Food to Seniors

Seniors make up a significant portion of our client base. In 2020, 22% of Target Hunger’s client population was age 60 and above. We have two programs that are set up to serve seniors in our community: a Senior Home Delivery Program and Senior Day Site Program. These programs allow us to deliver food to approximately 700 clients aged 60 and over each month. Both programs also allow us the opportunity to offer our Navigation Services – a program that helps them gain access to needed services for healthcare, social services, and other vital community resources.

Seniors can register for our pantry program to receive a monthly distribution of nutritious food. Prior to the pandemic, we offered a senior home delivery service for those unable to visit food pantries. Often, these clients have health issues or lack of transportation that keep them from coming to pick up food. Our delivery service sent drivers directly to their homes with a food distribution and allowed the drivers to check-in on clients and their other needs. Our Senior Day Site Program brought us to 10 local seniors activity centers and apartment complexes to provide groceries. When the pandemic hit everything changed…

DoorDash Drivers have been incredible getting boxes of nourishing food to our seniors during the pandemic.

Delivering During the Pandemic

As we started to see COVID protocols come into place, our operations had to shift entirely. We transitioned from a normal pantry program to strictly serving the community through Drive-Thru Food Distributions. Keeping safety at the forefront of our minds, the way we served our seniors also needed a drastic change. Sending drivers into seniors’ homes was no longer an option for the safety of both parties, and because our drivers shifted to support the growing need (and lines) at the drive-thru distributions.

That’s where DoorDash came in. United Way Worldwide expanded their Ride United program addressing transportation needs for communities in need. Partnering with DoorDash and using “DoorDash’s last-mile logistics platform and community of Dashers” allowed the Ride United program to serve more people.

What did all this mean for Target Hunger? For us, it meant that our community of seniors would continue to receive their nutritious food in the safest way possible – DoorDash drivers pick up the food from our warehouse and leave it at our clients’ doorstep. We have also been able to serve the seniors in our Day Site Program in the same way and expanded home delivery to other families in the northeast Houston communities we serve.

One of our Senior Program Clients!

The feedback from the seniors we serve has been incredible! Here are just a few of their words:

A letter from another one of our Senior Program clients.

“When coming from dialysis, I do not feel like cooking I can choose what I want by warming up the food I receive from Target Hunger. The snacks at night and in the morning for breakfast such as cereal and milk are good for me. There are special foods I have to be on because of my medical needs.  This is a blessing for me; it would be a lot worse if I did not have Target Hunger to supply this food every month.”

“Thanks for all your help during the Winter Storm and the ongoing pandemic. The meal boxes came on time saved trips to the grocery stores because I lacked transportation. And the calls to let us know when you were coming were both greatly appreciated. Target Hunger is most definitely a caring organization.”

“I’ve had no transportation since leaving the Peavy Center where I came daily for meals and fellowship. Wondering how I would get to the grocery store to shop for fresh vegetables, produce, and meat was mind boggling.  Then, I get this call from Target Hungry saying they were going to deliver the meal boxes to my home brought tears to my eyes. You have been a blessing to me, and I thank God for your act of kindness and support.”

Though we are transitioning back to normal services, we are excited to say the DoorDash program will continue operating until the end of the year. This service has been critical to continued service in our communities, and we are so thankful for this partnership.