It’s August! We have just a few weeks to go before the start of the school year! Our Newton Neighbors team is moving into the fall on a high note on the heels of a very successful school supply drive and bike drive. With your help we are thrilled to support the youngest members of our and surrounding communities. Beyond these successful drives our core team is busy coordinating our three food insecurity initiatives (sign up to volunteer below!) providing neighbors with opportunities to help neighbors access food from local pantries and our very own fabulous student intern consultant Aaron has been hard at work helping us develop Newton Neighbors communication products. It has been a busy and fulfilling summer at Newton Neighbors and there is more to come!
Bike Drive Thank you!
Thank you to all who donated their time (and bicycles!) for our summer bike drive. With the help of the Prospect Hill Community Foundation and the Franklin Elementary PTO, we collected 11 bicycles for donation to residents of the Prospect Hill Terrace Public Housing Community. The bikes were cleaned and serviced where needed, and then distributed in late July and put to immediate and enthusiastic use.
Photo Caption: Happy recipients of bikes from our Bike Drive!
School Supply Drive Thank you!
Newton Neighbors, in collaboration with The Street Chestnut Hill, The Village Bank and Saint Mary's Episcopal Church in Newton Lower Falls recently collected school supplies for kids of all ages in and around Newton. With your generous support and the assistance of local social workers we are now distributing over 75 backpacks, and countless lunch boxes, water bottles, and many graphing calculators to dozens of families.We send a huge thank you to our fabulous partners, our hard-working volunteers, and our wonderful, supportive community! If you are looking for school supplies, please reach out to us at newtonneighborshelping@gmail.com.
Photo Caption: Photos of our school supply collections and some of our fabulous partners at the Village Bank and Saint Mary's Episcopal Church in Newton Lower Falls.
Food Pantry Delivery
We still need drivers during the last week of August and September!
We are actively recruiting drivers for all shifts for our grocery delivery program from local food pantries to neighbors who can’t get to the pantries on their own. Here’s the schedule:
Tuesdays from Centre Street Food Pantry (Newton Centre). Pickup at either 12 or 12:15.
Wednesdays from Newton Food Pantry (City Hall). Scheduled pickup times between 12:15 - 2:45.
The third Friday of the month from Post 440 Mobile Food Bank. Pickup between 9 - 9:15 am.
It takes about an hour of your day to make these deliveries.
August sign-up sheet: https://volunteersignup.org/3HBR9
September sign-up sheet: https://volunteersignup.org/HD3FJ
Bulk Food Delivery
NN’s bulk food delivery program is looking for short- and long-term volunteers to join us in delivering fresh produce from local food rescue organizations to MetroWest and South Area food pantries. Help bridge that last link in the distribution chain and provide good food to so many who need it. Commitments range from once in a while to once every 4-6 weeks, or even more. Please reach out to us at newtonneighborshelping@gmail.com to volunteer or find out more.
Freedge
Newton Neighbors continues to support the Newton Food Pantry’s community refrigerator initiative, known as “The Freedge.” The Freedge is located in the parking lot of Central Cleaners at 420 W. Watertown Street in Nonantum. We oversee volunteers on Thursdays – we have volunteer opportunities throughout the day, to pick up food from business partners and bring it to the Freedge, to shop for items for the Freedge, and to clean and maintain the Freedge. Our link for signups for September and October is here: volunteersignup.org/F7TDM We also have some slots left in August (it’s a big vacation month and we could especially use your help in the next couple weeks: volunteersignup.org/FMAKF )
Introducing our Summer Intern Consultant, Aaron!
Hi, my name is Aaron Apostadero and I am a consulting intern for Newton Neighbors this summer. I am a rising senior at Tufts University majoring in Community Health and Biochemistry. At Tufts, I am very invested in food insecurity through my Senior Honors Thesis on food insecurity for college students, student coping mechanisms, and their use of food-related resources. I also run the Student Garden on campus that teaches students about gardening and helps to mitigate food insecurity on and off-campus. I love working at Newton Neighbors because I not only get to learn more about efforts of food insecurity in different communities, but also because I am invested in improving the wellbeing of all individuals through multiple means.
Photo Caption: Our fabulous student intern consultant Aaron!
Events and information
School bus registration
Bus registration will close on August 20, 2023
From Newton Public Schools: Please use this link to determine your distance from your school.
Registration and payment for the bus is done through your MySchoolBucks account. Follow these bus registration instructions to register. More information on bus registration can be found on our NPS Bus Registration webpage.
Kindergarten & Garden City Soccer are great ways to connect with your pre-K and Kindergarten community
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