Common Heartbeat Blog

For 20 summers, neighbors like you have helped families find food, hope, and kindness when they needed it most.   This summer, neighbors helping neighbors matters more than ever. When school is out, many children lose access to regular breakfasts and lunches. At the same time, rising grocery costs and […]

Looking for a way to make an impact in our community this summer? Host a food drive!  These are a great way for students & groups (including VBS locations and summer camps!) to serve and are essential to feeding our neighbors.  Students can even earn service hours! Click here for details. […]

Make a long-term impact on our food insecure neighbors by becoming a Cupboard Ally volunteer!  Allies deliver groceries (and hope!) once a month and often build friendships!   We’re hosting a volunteer training on Saturday, June 13 at Faith United Methodist Church in Lake Park. Registration required. Call Alexis McDonald at 980-443-3841 or email CupboardAlly@CommonHeart.org

You’re Invited! Getting Ahead graduation June 16Our current Getting Ahead empowerment group is graduating Tuesday, June 16 at 6:15 p.m. at Siler Presbyterian Church in Wesley Chapel and YOU’RE INVITED!   Please join us for dinner and help us celebrate these hard-working neighbors who put in a lot of long hours assessing our community’s conditions and […]

June is here with all the busyness and joy of school ending, summer vacations, and graduations. The photo above captures one word perfectly: community. Every heart on the wall represents a person, local business, or church that gave during last month’s Kickstart Kindness campaign. It’s a beautiful reminder that when we give […]

We’re thrilled to introduce a new addition to the Common Heart team – Detrina Little, Economic Empowerment Director. Detrina comes to us with over 15 years of experience leading Bridges Out of Poverty and Getting Ahead programming, first as Director of Family Support at YMCA of Greater Charlotte and most […]

Federal food reductions mean your generosity is urgently needed!  Just 5 DAYS LEFT in the $50K Kickstart Kindness match and we just found out that we will not be receiving nonperishables from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) for at least the next six weeks! TEFAP – a federal program administered through Second […]

The results are in!!! Community donations at the Giving Machine Charlotte during the holidays raised $20,870 for Common Heart!  WOW!! THANK YOU to everyone who donated! We had such fun celebrating with our friends at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the big reveal! Donations will be […]

Many thanks to our friends at Aramark who generously donated $2,400 to purchase food for our kids snack bags AND sent a team of energetic employees to pack it all up! 300 kids bags are ready to go out to our evening food pantries! Thank you Aramark! How can your […]

When Priscilla Waddell first heard about our Getting Ahead program, she was waiting to receive free groceries at our evening food pantry in Monroe. She took the flyer and read it – a small moment that would eventually lead to big change, she said. As a single mom of four, […]