Spotlight on nominee Interfaith Community Outreach

nominee Interfaith Community Outreach

Next in our series of posts about new Charitocracy OBX nominees, we have nominee Interfaith Community Outreach, nominated by donor jjalbanese1. They are "Bridging the Gap," providing assistance to individuals facing a temporary emergency crisis. You can find their web site here.

A few words on Charitocracy

Firstly, for newcomers: here's how it works. Donors pool their monthly contributions, as little as $1. The cause with the most votes each month wins the pot. No matter how much or how little you contribute, each donor at Charitocracy gets one vote. This is where charity meets democracy. So please share this post (see social sharing icons at top of post) and ask your friends to join us and vote! That's how we spread the word and, as a result, grow the monthly pot. The bigger the pot, the bigger our positive impact on the world!

About nominee Interfaith Community Outreach

History

July 29, 2003 – On this date, five parishioners of a local Church met to discuss and define incremental steps necessary to establish a unified way to equitably distribute aid to those in our community seeking emergency assistance.

September 2003 local Pastors who were members of the North Beach Ministerial Association agreed to support the vision. The ICO promised to:

  • Maintain the dignity of the person making requests.
  • Have a central historical database to assure accountability for funds being disbursed and therefore eliminate the possibility of fraud or abuse.
  • Track the needs of our community and be sure that services, funds, energy and efforts are not duplicated.
  • Help those in need, such as the working poor, the undocumented, the elderly, the physically challenged, the single parent and those who otherwise do not qualify for governmental assistance.

Commitments were made, volunteers were recruited and trained by Dare County Department of Social Services and the doors to the ICO were opened January 1, 2004.

Since ICO’s founding in 2003, Interfaith Community Outreach has helped over 19,000 individuals in Dare and Currituck who were facing a temporary emergency crisis. These are friends, neighbors, co-workers and even family members that are struggling, many of them in silence. They are struggling to pay rent in order to keep a roof over their heads and they are living in the dark because they couldn’t afford to pay their electricity bill last month. These are just a few examples of what Interfaith Community Outreach addresses each day with people who turn to us when they can no longer carry the burden on their own. Our Staff, Board, and Volunteers work incredibly hard each and every year to raise the funds needed to support our mission of helping people facing a temporary emergency crisis.

So check out this video from last February in which Executive Director (and nominator!) Jenniffer Albanese talks about ICO's programs and how they're "Bridging the Gap" in the Outer Banks. Then please visit the page of nominee Interfaith Community Outreach to vote for, like, or discuss this cause!

Spotlight on nominee KDH Fire Auxiliary

KDH Fire Auxiliary Facebook Share

Next in our series of posts about new Charitocracy OBX nominees, we have nominee KDH Fire Auxiliary, nominated by donor John Towler. They support the mission of the Kill Devil Hills Fire Department in a variety of ways, including fighting fires. You can find the department's web site here.

A few words on Charitocracy

Firstly, for newcomers: here's how it works. Donors pool their monthly contributions, as little as $1. The cause with the most votes each month wins the pot. No matter how much or how little you contribute, each donor at Charitocracy gets one vote. This is where charity meets democracy. So please share this post (see social sharing icons at top of post) and ask your friends to join us and vote! That's how we spread the word and, as a result, grow the monthly pot. The bigger the pot, the bigger our positive impact on the world!

About nominee KDH Fire Auxiliary

Kill Devil Hills' Fire Department is a combination department protecting a coastal resort community. We are proud of our ISO rating of 3! Our staffing model consists of well-trained, dedicated career and volunteer professionals. The duty crews, or career team members, are tasked with emergency response duties 24-hours a day, 365 days of the year. They handle daily workload operations and maintenance tasks to ensure the department is in a constant state of readiness. Maintaining training requirements is also an important part of ensuring readiness, and ensuring safety requirements are met. Our reserve firefighters - volunteers - provide the necessary additional staffing and are a vital part of our emergency response model. This model is a balanced approach to meeting requirements for today's fire service.

We invite you to visit the station, come on in and meet our duty crews. Our team members will gladly show you around.

Help Us to Find You - Get an Address Sign

A great way to help first responders (and delivery services) locate your home is to have an address marker that can be mounted on your property. Our Fire Department Auxiliary can create a reflective marker for your property, making it easy for you to be reached - especially when time is of the essence!

Please download and print this form: KDH Address Marker Form

So check out this slideshow shown at the fire department's 2018 awards banquet. Then please visit the page of nominee KDH Fire Auxiliary to vote for, like, or discuss this cause!

Spotlight on nominee Beach Food Pantry

nominee Beach Food Pantry

Next in our series of posts about new Charitocracy OBX nominees, we have nominee Beach Food Pantry, nominated by donor obxlisa. They provide free groceries to individuals and families in our community who have been affected by a temporary crisis or emergency. You can find their web site here.

A few words on Charitocracy

Firstly, for newcomers: here's how it works. Donors pool their monthly contributions, as little as $1. The cause with the most votes each month wins the pot. No matter how much or how little you contribute, each donor at Charitocracy gets one vote. This is where charity meets democracy. So please share this post (see social sharing icons at top of post) and ask your friends to join us and vote! That's how we spread the word and, as a result, grow the monthly pot. The bigger the pot, the bigger our positive impact on the world!

About nominee Beach Food Pantry

We offer hope to the estimated 5,680 people in Dare County who are food insecure - 1,550 of whom are children. And, we offer our commitment - to every Dare County resident - that we will be prepared to do our part should our Outer Banks community ever be affected by a natural event.

The Beach Food Pantry (BFP) was organized by a few local religious organizations in 1989. In 1992, the BFP incorporated. In 2004, we became an IRS Tax Exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Over the years, the BFP has been located at St. Andrews by the Sea Episcopal Church and Holy Trinity in Nags Head; the Emergency Medical Services station in Kill Devil Hills; Southern Shores; and various locations in Kitty Hawk. In January 2016, we moved to our new permanent home at 4007 North Croatan Highway in Kitty Hawk.

The BFP operates under a set of bylaws with our primary mission to help fight hunger and poverty of residents of Dare County by providing temporary assistance of food, and information regarding other services to alleviate hunger and poverty. We have a 13-member Board of Directors, with a four-member Executive Committee, and an Executive Director. We are supported by a 16-member local church and civic organizational structure which helps staff the pantry, volunteers who assist by picking up donations from retail stores, and over 300 total volunteers who support the Pantry through some form of volunteer service. We also have numerous individual, organizations, businesses, religious entities, and corporations which contribute food and money to us regularly to help support our mission. Along with donations from community food drives, religious organizations, businesses, philanthropic groups, and individual citizens, we purchase a large amount of food and other items from the Food Bank of the Albemarle. Once a month, we are supplemented with product from the State Nutritional Aid Program (SNAP). Additionally, we receive meat, produce, baked goods, dairy, and other items at a minimal per pound cost from the Southern Shores, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head Food Lions and Fresh Market in Nags Head.

The people and families that we serve are given a minimum two-week supply of food based on family size. We provide temporary assistance up to four times a year, with a minimum of 30 days required between visits. In 2014, we were named Outer Banks Non-Profit of the Year through the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit of the Year Program. We are an affiliate of Feeding America and the Food Bank of the Albemarle, and are members of the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, North Carolina Center for Non-Profits and NC Tech 4 Good.

So check out this slideshow presentation which, despite being 4 years old now, really captures how big a part of our community BFP is. Then please visit the page of Beach Food Pantry to vote for, like, or discuss this cause!