December Service Projects

Mindy Chan, Anneke Demmink, Camille Brockett and Kristine Ferrer
at St. Francis Soup Kitchen.

The first of the North Florida Health Corps' service projects for the month of December took place at the St. Francis Soup Kitchen in Downtown Jacksonville. The St. Francis Soup Kitchen is unique in that it is run entirely by volunteers and is open only on Saturdays. Our members helped prepare the meal and desserts, distribute canned goods, as well as serve the meal and help clean up after the lunch. 

NFHC member Mandy Chan said, "I definitely found the service rewarding as we helped to feed the hungry and saw the results as some people would come up to the kitchen and thanked us for the good food. Seeing the amount of people who came through the doors to be fed was amazing. We could see the impact we were making that Saturday morning."

Tristan Morioka, Abby Bradford, and Tatiana Giustizia
sign parents up for the Holiday Toy Drive.

Often lost in the excitement surrounding Christmas and the winter holidays is the sad fact that many parents and families are unable to provide their children with presents as a part of the celebrations.

This past December the NFHC decided to do its part to help these families by volunteering at the R&K Family Center Toy Giveaway.  Members spent the morning registering parents and their children and then passing out all kinds of fun toys and books to the excited kids.

The toy giveaway is just one of the initiatives of the R&K Family Center which focuses on mental health case management, anti-poverty food and clothing assistance, and literacy tutoring in Jacksonville.

While many members traveled home early for the holidays, on December 24^th several members of the North Florida Health Corps spent the majority of their day hosting a food and hygiene drive for the Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network, better known as JASMYN.

Lauren Pamas, Liana Broomans, Brittany Lomax,
Lauren Hudak, and Samantha Kwiatkowski
collect donations for JASMYN on Christmas Eve.

JASMYN’s mission is to support local LGBTQ youth by providing health services, youth development services, a safe space, and a food and hygiene pantry for their disenfranchised youth. Since 1998, JASMYN has empowered over 25,000 youth. During the holidays non-perishable food and hygiene item donations are most needed by the organization for their food pantry.

Samantha Kwiatkowski, an NFHC member, spent the weeks leading up to the event planning with the JASMYN staff and coordinating with local businesses in an effort to promote the food drive and get word out into the community.

The generosity demonstrated by Jacksonville residents, particularly those in the Riverside neighborhood, was above and beyond what was expected. One local purchased an entire shopping cart worth of items to give. 

Members felt great about their ability to give back to the LGBTQ community in Jacksonville. Spending the holiday eve running the food drive was found to be especially rewarding. JASMYN appreciated the time and effort put in as well. As one staff member stated, “You all rock!”