New Horizons Tour

In anticipation of next week's Cardboard City, I took 7 students on a tour of New Horizons today.  New Horizons is the beneficiary of Cardboard City and I like to take students to show them who we are helping.  Charlie Sherman, the executive director, once again generously gave of his time to show the kids around and to explain their work.

On average, New Horizons distributes food to 900 families through their food pantry each month, they serve 250-300 meals a night at their soup kitchen, and they provide shelter to 75-100 people each night.  They have an annual budget of $1.2 million but only get $200,000 in funding from the state and the city which means they have to raise $1 million a year to fund their operations.  This number really struck me and makes our little donation seem paltry.  But, despite the fact that our funding provides less than 1% of their annual budget, Charlie treats our kids like high rollers, he's so good to them.  He told the kids that Trinity students are so good to New Horizons and is so grateful for all they do for them, be it through Cardboard City or volunteering there every month (we send a contingent on the first Thursday of each month).

My hope is that by bringing a contingent of students, they will go back and share what they learned with their classmates and friends and encourage them to help be generous to Cardboard City.  So far we have 150 or so students signed up!  Whether or not they all end up taking part remains to be seen but the buzz is there.  Perhaps we can shatter last year's fundraising total???