THE CITIZEN BLOG
THE CITIZEN BLOG
Meet Hands On Hunger Pantry - Stella Love
Meet one of our newest Hands On Hunger pantries - Stella Love Non-Profit!
Stella Love Non-Profit is a Georgia-based non-profit organization that first started by distributing hot & ready meals to the homeless in downtown Atlanta. Now they have grown to provide services to single-parent households, low-income families, children, youth, and many more!
Meet one of our newest Hands On Hunger pantries - Stella Love Non-Profit!
Stella Love Non-Profit is a Georgia-based non-profit organization that first started by distributing hot & ready meals to the homeless in downtown Atlanta. Now they have grown to provide services to single-parent households, low-income families, children, youth, and many more!
Every month they may serve anywhere from 100 to 300 families, and families say “when you walk into the office, you can feel the love.” Learn more about Stella Love Non-Profit, and how you can help below!
Tell us about why you applied to the Hands On Hunger Program and what you're goals are for the next two years.
We applied to the Hands On Hunger Program because we believed with this program's help, we could dramatically improve the overall structure of our organization. This improvement would allow us to more efficiently handle our returning and new volunteers as well as our ability to help our clients better than before
Tell us about your organization - what's your mission, and how does it impact our community?
Stella Love Non-Profit cares for children, low-income families, single-parent households, and unhoused individuals who need help. We are motivated by the love of God and hope to provide optimism for the future and an environment where all those we are struggling can look to us for support; to be a lifeline for them while they return to socioeconomic stability.
“If you ever find yourself in need of extra food, this is the place to go!”
What's the history of your organization? How and why did it get started?
Stella Love Non-Profit is a Georgia-based non-profit organization that first started by distributing hot & ready meals to the homeless in downtown Atlanta. We have grown to provide services to single-parent households, low-income families, children, youth, and many more individuals who require assistance to get by. This organization was founded because of Stella Love's desire to help those who are experiencing financial hardships. After going through a period of homelessness and financial hardship herself, she knows firsthand how hard it can be to climb back up to stability. That's why she founded this organization—to help others climb back up too.
How do volunteers support your mission? What impact do they have on your work? What is possible through the support of volunteers that would not be possible otherwise?
Stella Love Non-Profit has relied heavily on volunteers who have supported our programs since our inception. Volunteers are crucial in Stella Love’s ability to provide quality social services for the entire community. Volunteers are valuable assets, and efforts to meet the changing needs of our community. Through the skills and experience they bring to us, volunteers make significant contributions to society by positively impacting the lives of those we assist, such as providing more groceries to low-income families and single-parent households or distributing food to multitudes of homeless individuals in downtown Atlanta.
What community problem is your organization trying to solve? Can you tell us more about the issue?
The community problem we are trying to solve is financial burden and hunger. Many individuals in our community live in low-income households and experience the burden of having to use their relatively small income for several financial responsibilities. So, we intend to alleviate some of those financial responsibilities by lessening their need to spend their funds on necessities such as food, clothing, and other household items.
“Food insecurity is touching the lives of more people than ever. The choice often has to be made to buy food or keep the utilities on. Stella Love nonprofit makes it possible for my family to know we will have nutritious food no matter how limited our funds might be any given week. Stella and volunteers, you are a true blessing”
What kind of programming do you offer the community?
Family Aid, Feed the Homeless, and Free Food Distribution are our main programs; however, in the local community, the program we conduct most often is our Free Food Distribution where families come to our office to collect food that we receive from stores such as Publix and Costco.
What types of projects do you offer? Tell us about a few different offerings. Do you have monthly or weekly recurringopportunities? How about your seasonal or annual events?
Family Aid, Feed the Homeless, and Free Food Distribution are our main programs. Family Aid is a program that focuses on helping low-income families and single-parent households that are struggling to make ends meet by providing groceries and other necessities. Feed the Homeless is where we travel to downtown Atlanta to provide food, clothing, hygiene packs, and other goods to the unhoused. Lastly, Feed Food Distribution is where we redistribute the food given to us by our partners such as Publix, Costco, and Atlanta Community Food Bank to the local community. Also, we commit ourselves to hosting annual, recurring holiday specials (i.e., Easter Egg Hunt, Back-To-School Giveaway, Thanksgiving Giveaway, Breakfast with Santa, Christmas Giveaway) and weekly bread and sandwich distributions.
“Stella love non-profit has been amazing my niece’s and nephews love going to the events they have and participate in the activities I come and get food every other week I enjoy seeing everyone’s smile when I come up to get my food. The volunteers are awesome.”
Tell us about what it's like to serve with your organization. How many volunteers do you host every month?
Every month, depending on the events that we conduct each month, we could host between 15 to 50 volunteers in total.
What keeps volunteers coming back to serve with your organization?
We believe volunteers keep coming back to serve with us due to our fun atmosphere, variety of event opportunities that provide a different experience each time, and our consistent volunteer appreciation such as donuts, water, T-shirts, and more!
Tell us about how volunteers can jump in and get involved. How can they best support you?
Volunteers can find + sign up for our open projects here!
Volunteers can get involved by signing up for any event of their choosing on our website! We offer lots of different events that provide unique experiences and satisfy wherever their interests are, whether that is working in a stadium, serving food to homeless individuals, or setting up items for our seasonal giveaways!
Where can volunteers find your organization on socials?
Instagram - @iamstellalove
TikTok - @iamstellalove1
To learn more about our Hands On Hunger program visit www.handsonatlanta.org/hunger
Meet Hands On Hunger Pantry - Another Chance of Atlanta
Meet one of our newest Hands On Hunger pantries - Another Chance of Atlanta! New to Atlanta, Another Chance of Atlanta is trying to help solve homelessness and food insecurity in Southwest Atlanta.
Meet one of our newest Hands On Hunger pantries - Another Chance of Atlanta! New to Atlanta, Another Chance of Atlanta is trying to help solve homelessness and food insecurity in Southwest Atlanta. Their food pantry serves roughly 1200 individuals + families a month with supplemental food.
Along with feeding the community, they offer housing and financial assistance to the community. They are truly making an impact here in Atlanta, and we’re excited to help them continue the fight against food insecurity.
Read more about Another Chance of Atlanta below!
Tell us about why you applied to the Hands On Hunger Program and what you're goals are for the next two years.
Our food pantry has only been open for a year and we are growing and improving. We understand that we would have to be connected to a much larger network to get the consistency of volunteers to serve our population. Our goal is to capitalize on volunteers and understand volunteer management utilizing data, metrics and the systems as well as reporting. We want to understand all the processes involved during these next 2 years. We are very eager to learn!!
Tell us about your organization - what's your mission, and how does it impact our community?
Our organization's mission is to provide food, a structural living environment & life enhancement skills to those who are homeless/low-income and those individuals seeking to recover from substance abuse, domestic violence and other behavioral problems. This ultimately impacts our community by reducing and improving the lives of our most 'vulnerable' populations.
“The main thing that keeps volunteers coming back is that we are organized and have a system going. Although we are always looking for new innovative ideas to get better and improve. We make sure that the volunteer experience is a good one each time.”
What's the history of your organization? How and why did it get started?
Initially our organization started off with just helping women in need back in 2000. Our executive director has a very unique story and because of her journey and life experience she made it her passion to give back. She was in a place of need at one point in her life and she remembers what resources were there and what wasn't during her time of survival.
How do volunteers support your mission? What impact do they have on your work? What is possible through the support of volunteers that would not be possible otherwise?
Volunteers support our mission by helping us to provide care and assistance to those who are in most need. The impact they have on our work is allowing us to reach and serve a much greater number of vulnerable people. This level of service allows individuals to understand that we are here and we too have compassion and that we just want to help. If we didn't have the support of volunteers we wouldn't be successful in our day to day operations. We are a small agency with a small staff. It would be impossible for us to provide a high level of care, assistance and resources to a great mass of individuals in need.
What community problem is your organization trying to solve? Can you tell us more about the issue?
Our agency is trying to help solve homelessness and food insecurity in Southwest Atlanta. This may be a far reach but primarily in the areas that we serve. Since COVID rents have skyrocketed and folks are having a hard time deciding whether to pay for rent or food because of the inflated prices. This issue is a major issue and we understand this takes a great collaboration of like minded-people, agencies and the government to solve. This is a collective effort.
Can you share some impact stats or comments about the work being done by your organization? For example, how many meals/families/individuals do you serve monthly?
Currently our food pantry operations serve roughly 1200 individuals/families a month with supplemental food. In addition, we provide space for our partner agencies to come out to provide resources to those who visit our pantry.
What kind of programming do you offer the community?
We offer food, housing and financial assistance to the community. Financial assistance by way of rental assistance, security deposit & utility assistance and hotel vouchers.
What types of projects do you offer? Tell us about a few different offerings. Do you have monthly or weekly recurringopportunities? How about your seasonal or annual events?
Our agency offers housing for homeless disabled veterans. From time to time when veterans move on we have to do light renovations to the units; such as: painting, cleaning etc to get the unit ready for the next veteran. We also have another housing program for at-risk homeless men and women and after they move out we have projects for that program to do some light renovation work. We do have seasonal and annual community giveaway events throughout the year. Some events include Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Back 2 School, September Recovery Month Events, Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaways and Toys 4 Tots.
Tell us about what it's like to serve with your organization. How many volunteers do you host every month?
We host about 30 volunteers a month. Most are recurring volunteers who love our organization and the work that we do. The atmosphere is pleasant and professional. We care about our volunteers and it's our priority to ensure that they have a good experience each time they volunteer!
Tell us about how volunteers can jump in and get involved. How can they best support you?
Volunteers can find + sign up for our open projects here!
Volunteers can support us with our Food Pantry and with the light renovation of our Housing Programs for the at-risk and disabled homeless veterans. Volunteers can also best support us by volunteering at our events such as Toys 4 Tots and Back 2 School just to name a couple.
Where can volunteers find your organization on socials?
To learn more about our Hands On Hunger program visit www.handsonatlanta.org/hunger
Introducing our Class of 2026 Hands On Hunger Cohort!
We’re excited to introduce our newest Hands On Hunger cohort! Since 2018, in partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, we’ve led 10 cohorts of pantries through our intensive 2 year capacity-building program, with this being our 11th.
We’re excited to introduce our newest Hands On Hunger cohort! Since 2018, in partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, we’ve led 10 cohorts of pantries through our intensive 2 year capacity-building program, with this being our 11th.
Throughout this program we help by providing capacity for each agency (pantry) through volunteer management best practices, access to enterprise level software, marketing and outreach, and pro-level account management and customer service - to fully support volunteer engagement. Through this, agencies can more effectively retain repeat volunteers in order to support their mission and distribute more food to their communities.
Meet our newest cohort fighting food insecurity:
To learn more about our Hands On Hunger program visit www.handsonatlanta.org/hunger
Raising the Bar | These Baristas Serve More than Coffee
Over the course of the Starbucks Service Fellows’ six-month term with us, Julie and Maya, managed 10 food pantries that were selected by the Food Bank. Specifically, the Starbucks Service Fellows providing one-on-one support to the food pantries including training on volunteer management best practices and our volunteer management software; helping them write volunteer role descriptions, and volunteering at their facilities.
A little over a year ago the Atlanta Community Food Bank approached Hands On Atlanta, asking if we could help increase capacity at some of their affiliate food pantries by recruiting volunteers on their behalf. Specifically, the Food Bank wanted to provide more food to more people and hypothesized that if we were able to send more volunteers to their affiliates then their objective of feeding more people would be achieved.
We were eager to dive in and help, but with a lean team ourselves, we wondered how we could make this happen. Wouldn’t you know it, around the same time, Points of Light presented us with an incredible opportunity from Starbucks. We would apply to host a couple of their partners (Starbucks employees) who would help address one of the company’s social pillars: food insecurity. So, problem-solved! We jumped at the opportunity and applied for and got two outstanding Starbucks Service Fellows, Julie and Maya, to help us implement our partnership with the Food Bank.
Over the course of the Starbucks Service Fellows’ six-month term with us, Julie and Maya, managed 10 food pantries that were selected by the Food Bank. Specifically, the Starbucks Service Fellows providing one-on-one support to the food pantries including training on volunteer management best practices and our volunteer management software; helping them write volunteer role descriptions, and volunteering at their facilities. This was no easy task. The food pantries were very lean, grassroots organizations and many were being run by volunteers. For example, none of them had a formal system for tracking their volunteers; volunteers signed up using pen and paper. So Julie and Maya spent a significant amount of time teaching them how to use our volunteer software increasing the efficiencies and workflow at the food pantries.
“We’ve been able to double the number of volunteers thanks to Hands On Atlanta.”
Change can be hard which meant that the food pantries needed encouragement and support. One of the most value skills the Starbucks Service Fellows brought to their role was their impeccable customer service. Julie and Maya were patient and always treated the food pantries with respect. As a result, they gained the food pantries trust. Not only did the Starbucks Service Fellows get the pantries to use our volunteer management software, but in just three months of posting their opportunities the food pantries recruited 143 volunteers who served a total 544 hours! Margie Boone, CEO of the food pantry, Margie’s House, stated, "We've been able to double the number of volunteers thanks to Hands On Atlanta."
With the support from Starbucks in their partners’ growth and civic engagement, as well as building capacity for nonprofits like ours, we were able to build upon the strong foundation with the Food Bank, one of our long time partners. We also were able to expand our service foot print into high-needs areas like Gwinnet and Clayton Counties, deepening the impact we’re able to have in the metro region.
Thank you to Starbucks and their incredible partners, Julie and Maya. Their fellowship ended in mid-February, however, they will always be a part of the Hands On Atlanta family. In fact, Julie has stayed on board volunteering with us two days a week to continue providing support to the food pantries - through June when the food pantries are eligible to renew their partnership with us. We’re definitely looking forward to the next phase of the Starbucks Service Fellowship program, hoping to grow from a grande to a venti!
Want to volunteer at one the food pantries?
Serve your neighbor being affected by the shutdown
The Atlanta Community Food Bank is proactively working to support impacted federal employees and contractors. We may see many more in the coming days if this shutdown continues. If you or someone you know is met with the new challenge of putting food on the table during the shutdown, please visit our Government Shutdown relief page to find help.
An important letter from Kyle Waide, President and CEO, Atlanta Community Food Bank
The current government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. Georgia’s federal employees and contractors are feeling the immediate impact. Roughly 16,000 of our neighbors have either been furloughed or required to work without pay since the shutdown began four weeks ago.
Many of these families are faced—for the first time—with impossible choices between food and other necessities, like housing, transportation and medication. During the past week, we've seen a 383% increase in searches for help on our website. We've heard from local TSA workers who have never had to ask for food assistance. And we've talked to multiple feeding partners who are reporting an increase in the number of people they serve daily.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank is proactively working to support impacted federal employees and contractors. We may see many more in the coming days if this shutdown continues. If you or someone you know is met with the new challenge of putting food on the table during the shutdown, please the ACFB Government Shutdown relief page to find help.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank and it’s partner food pantries need your help more than ever. The increased demand for food means there’s even more need for volunteers to support these distribution efforts. It’s time to step up and serve.