Who We Serve

EACH YEAR THE GENEROUS EFFORTS  OF VOLUNTEERS SUPPORT dozens CAMBRIDGE ORGANIZATIONS that Deliver critical services to neighbors in need. YOUR MANY HANDS HELP TO POWER THEIR EFFORTS AND INCREASE THEIR ABILITY TO SERVE and ASSIST PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY.

 

THANK YOU FOR LENDING YOUR HELPING HANDS!

For 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Many Helping Hands 365 had to radically re-think how to support the work of local organizations. Many nonprofits were already operating at limited capacity and could not accommodate. 

We talked to leaders in our community about the needs they were seeing, and we talked to volunteers. The result was a hybrid event—a week of learning and serving and a deeper commitment to racial justice.

In the end, more than 1,000 volunteers lent their helping hands during the Cambridge MLK Day of Service 2021 helped 49 local service organizations.

In addition more than 325 people attended seven different Racial Justice conversations on Zoom to learn more about the impact of racism in our community and what individuals can do to fight it.

 

Here are the results…..

Food Pantries

You collected and donated 804 bags of donated groceries along with $1,625 of grocery gift cards. These were given to 11 area food pantries and food programs.

  • Cambridge Community Center Pantry
  • East End House Food Pantry
  • La Colaborativa in Chelsea
  • Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House Food Pantry
  • Massachusetts Ave. Baptist Church
  • Project Manna Food Pantry
  • Pentecostal Tabernacle Food Pantry
  • Somerville Food Pantry
  • St. Paul AME Church Pantry
  • St. Paul’s Catholic Parish Food Pantry
  • St. James Helping Hand Church Pantry
  • Salvation Army Food Pantry

BLANKETS

We delivered hundreds of handmade fleece blankets made on MLK Day to 8 organizations sheltering and helping homeless and at risk children and teens.

  • Cambridge Early Childhood Programs
  • Casa Nueva Vida
  • Cross Street Family Shelter
  • Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center
  • New Day (CASPAR)
  • Our Place 
  • Transition House
  • YWCA Family Shelter

DIAPER DRIVE

Together we collected hundreds of donated diapers to give to 5 organizations. These organizations distribute diapers as well as food to members of the community in need.

  • Cambridge Community Center
  • La Colaborativa
  • Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House
  • Stratford Street Church Pantry in West Roxbury
  • Wellesley Hills Congregational Church Pantry

VALENTINES

At least 3,376 Valentine Cards were given through 23 organizations helping elders, veterans, the ill and homeless and hand delivered to hundreds of elders living alone. Thousands more went from you to individuals in gratitude for their work in the community.

  • Cadbury Commons Memory Unit
  • Cambridge Homes
  • Cambridge Hospital Health Workers
  • Cambridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center
  • Cambridge Veterans Services
  • CASPAR Albany Street Emergency Shelter
  • Community Servings (Cambridge residents)
  • Food for Free
  • GROW House 
  • Isolated elders identified by Cambridge Housing Authority and Cambridge Police Department
  • HAGAN Manor (CASPAR)
  • Meals-on-Wheels (Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services)
  • Mens’ Residences 1 and 2 (CASPAR)
  • Mt. Auburn Hospital Health Workers
  • New Day (CASPAR)
  • On the Rise
  • Operation American Soldier
  • Rogers Veterans Hospital, Bedford
  • Sancta Maria Nursing Facility
  • Warming Center (CASPAR)
  • Woman Place 
  • Y2Y
  • YWCA Cambridge –Tanner Residence and The Family Shelter

HomeMade Cookies

Dedicated home bakers made dozens of bags of homemade cookies for meal programs and food pantries.

  • Friday Café at First Church
  • Stratford Street Church Pantry in West Roxbury
  • Wellesley Hills Congregational Church Pantry

PERSONAL CARE KITS

Hundreds of toiletry kits donated by the Intercontinental Hotel and The Porter Square Hotel were delivered to 14 local organizations serving homeless teens and adults.

  • Bridge Over Troubled Waters 
  • Cambridge Community Center
  • Albany Street Emergency Shelter (CASPAR)
  • Chapel Street Shelter
  • First Church Shelter
  • Friday Cafe
  • Hildebrand Family Self Help
  • On the Rise
  • Salvation Army 
  • St. Paul AME Church Pantry
  • The Warming Center (CASPAR)
  • Woman Place (CASPAR)
  • YWCA
  • Y2Y

RACIAL JUSTICE WORKSHOPS

Even with only a week’s notice, more than __ people up for one of nine racial justice workshops or presentations online with an average attendance of 72+ per program. We were excited to see so much engagement for this new component of Cambridge MLK Day festivities. If you’re interested in sending feedback or offering suggestions, click here.

  • Welcome Gathering and a Remembrance
  • The State of Activism Today
  • How Youth Can Take Action
  • MLK and the Leadership of Women
  • MLK as a Moralist: Faith and the Civil Rights Movement
  • MLK as a Radical
  • MLK and Housing Justice
  • Reflections on MLK Day 2021
  • A Civil Rights Read Aloud for Children

SCARVES

The handmade fleece scarves you created were given to 18 local organizations helping homeless children, teens and adults.

  • Bridge Over Troubled Waters
  • Cambridge Early Childhood Programs
  • City of Cambridge Homeless Outreach Project
  • Albany Street Emergency Shelter (CASPAR)
  • Chapel Street Shelter
  • Cross Street Shelter
  • First Church Shelter
  • First Step Outreach (CASPAR)
  • Friday Café at First Church
  • Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center
  • On the Rise
  • Our Place at Salvation Army
  • Salvation Army
  • The Warming Center (CASPAR)
  • Transition House
  • Woman Place (CASPAR)
  • Y2Y
  • YWCA Family Shelter

New & GENTLY USED BOOKS

This year we worked with More than Words—an amazing local organization run by and to benefit at-risk youth) to collect, organize and deliver books.

New & GENTLY USED CLOTHING

Volunteers collected and donated hundreds of bags of gently used winter clothing and delivered them to More than Words—who shared them with other local organizations assisting people in need.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Creative Commons

"We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.