Kroger scoops up chance to support Apple Fest

With just a few weeks to go until Apple Fest, we were still missing a key ingredient – ice cream for our GFS Marketplace apple cobbler. Thanks to our friends at Kroger, we’ll be serving it up a la mode!

Just yesterday, we reached out to Kroger, and like their slogan, we could count on them to come through for us. This isn’t a small act of kindness. We’re anticipating a great crowd this year, so we’re talking about 1,000 or so scoops of ice cream. So, a big thanks to Kroger for stepping up to help us raise funds for our Homelessness Bites campaign that supports our Women’s and Children’s Shelter here in Indianapolis.

And don’t forget to grab lunch with your dessert….Applebee’s will be serving up roast beef or freshly grilled chicken sandwiches and chips on the side for just $5! Stop by the Ricker’s pop trailer and grab a soft drink for just $1. Thanks to our generous partners, all the proceeds from this event will help us provide shelter, life skills classes and support for women and kids who are homeless due to financial hardships or abuse. What a great motivation to ‘Eat in the Street’ on Thursday, October 7!

We’ll have plenty of booths to stop by including Adrian Orchards, Two Men and a Truck, Indiana Pacers Fan Van and more. Live music will be provided by Band Wagon. And don’t forget that coat for Coats for Kids – we’ll give you a FREE apple cobbler as your sweet reward!

We still have booth space available for just $50 or join us as a participating sponsor at our table displays for just $75. Call Kristen at 224-1019 to join us! And to learn more about how you can help us Bite Back, go to HomelessnessBites.org.

Indy homeless students up by 26%, Salvation Army offers help

Today’s Indy Star reports that IPS has seen a 26% increase in the homeless students. The article is pretty sobering – Indiana is tied for 27th in the nation for homeless enrollment – nearly 10,000 students.

Our state has certainly felt the brunt of the economic downturn. And the trend continues in 2010 as unemployment hovers in the 10 percent range. About 43 percent of homeless schoolchildren in IPS are in kindergarten through third grade! These kids have difficulties concentrating, not knowing where they’ll sleep or where dinner will come from. In fact, these students are suspended from school at a rate of about twice the state average!

But thanks to our supporters, The Salvation Army’s Women’s and Children’s Shelter* can offer these kids some stability. Kids who stay in our shelter can count on healthy meals, warm beds and even homework help from our partners at Indy School on Wheels. The shelter isn’t a permanent solution – our counselors work with moms to get help with life skills, school or job placement and all the other resources they will need to break the cycle of joblessness, domestic violence and homelessness.

You can help us continue to provide these services to our littlest neighbors in need through the Homelessness Bites campaign. Find out how to get and fill a Bite Back box, donate online, sign up for our mobile VIP list or mark your calendar now for Apple Fest this October. For 1,500 kids in Indianapolis, homelessness bites. Bite back!

*nearly 1,100 women & children have been cared for in our shelter in 2010. Of the 204 who came to us in June, 76 were kids.

Applebee’s steps up to the grill for homeless kids

Since Applebee’s will generously provide the freshly grilled entrees for Apple Fest on 10/7, more of your lunch dollars will help us help Indy’s homeless kids. We’re thrilled to have the opporunity to work with their team again this Fall to bring you quality food that’s donated for a great cause – our campaign to end homelessness for Indy’s kids.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be working out the details and planning an event that will be worth spending your lunch hour with us. We’re asking you to mark your calendar now for Thursday, October 7 on Monument Circle. All the proceeds from this event will provide shelter, mentoring, tutoring and other programs for kids and their moms who come to our shelter in need of a safe place to stay and fresh start.

Stay tuned for updates…

Do you ChaCha? You Should.

Join the Homelessness Bites Mobile VIP List by texting HBITES to 242242. ChaCha has your back when it comes to ways to “bite back” when you’re on the go!

Partner with a purpose

Long-time Homelessness Bites campaign partners, Two Men and a Truck, will be joining us at ‘Eat Outsides the Box’ this May 14 from 10am-2pm at Veteran’s Memorial Plaza. And they’re hoping you’ll follow their lead by becoming a booth sponsor.

Why? Because 1,500 kids spend their nights on the streets of Indy and you can do something about it!

Partnership is super affordable – booth space is just $50! And Veteran’s Memorial Plaza offers a great location where about 400 picnic-goers joined us for last year’s event. That means prime exposure for our partnering non-profits and businesses. You’re welcome to have displays, giveways and even sell non-food items and you keep the profits!

Interested? Call Kristen at 224-1019 and reserve your space today to get in on early promotions.

Can’t sponsor? Well, you can come out for lunch and take a bite out of homelessness! The central location at Meridian & Michigan is super convenient for the employees of dozens of downtown businesses to just walk over and join us. All-American Picnic Company will be grilling hamburgers in addition to hotdogs. And we’re thrilled to have live music from BandWagon again this year! Lunch and tunes beats leftovers at your desk, right?

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