Clients lacking essential household furnishings such as chairs, couches, beds, bureaus, tables and lamps are referred.  Furniture Friends visits their home to assess needs. This allows them to target people who are most in need and to meet eye-to-eye to see exactly what is needed.  If a client has their own transportation they can come, select items and pick them up.  If they need assistance, Furnitures Friends has many volunteers who can help.  Volunteers come from youth groups, churches and local organizations. Their clientele includes people with disabilities, vets, people newly housed after a period of homelessness, women who have left an abusive situation and immigrants. 

 

In addition, they support Housing First. Housing First is an initiative with goal of moving folks into stable housing, even before they find a job, to stabilize their lives as they address other issues such as recovery, mental health or escape from abuse. Furniture is a key piece of making people feel secure under this model.

 

A member of the Furniture Bank Association of American, last year Furniture Friends helped 550 families, including 1600 people of which 600 were children. Furniture donated must be in good shape, especially mattresses.  They work with hotels to obtain lightly used furniture and have the ability to pick up donations using their volunteers.

 

If you are moving, selling, or downsizing, Furniture Friends can help. They always need couches, armchairs, dining tables & chairs, lamps, end tables, dressers and beds.  They also need volunteers to help pick-up and delivery furniture.   For more information, visit their website: http://furniturefriends.org/

After writing the poem, she began researching family literacy programs and learned the grim statistics of illiteracy in the United States.  One in four children don’t learn to read properly, 2/3 of the 15.5M impoverished children do not have a single book in their home, the number one indicator that children will arrive at kindergarten ready to learn to read is growing up in a home with lots of books & being read to daily from birth, and 2/3 of children not reading at grade level by fourth grade will end up on welfare or in prison. 

 

Shortly after learning this, she heard about a local food drive being organized.  It suddenly occurred to her that it made sense to collect books as well as food, and make these books available at the pantries along with food.  BFPP now accepts donated books through boxes placed in churches, schools, day cares, doctor’s offices, and libraries. They also hold books drives periodically. Volunteers sort and clean the books and deliver them to several food pantries and WIC offices in Cumberland County.  In addition, they supply books to Early Head Start to bring on home visits.

 

Pam grew up in Aroostook County in a poor family that could not afford books. She did not have a children’s book in her home until she had children of her own. Her “retirement” project has become getting books from where they are no longer needed to where they are desperately needed. Pam has engaged her neighbors at Deering Pavilion to help prep the books, and she encourages everyone to take and hour a week to go into a school and read with children.

 

The Book Fairy Pantry Project logo and marketing materials are not copyrighted and are available to anyone who wants to start a similar program. There is currently a BFPP in Australia, with several more across the US.  There will soon be one in Africa.

 

To learn more about this wonderful organization and to read Pam’s poem, visit their website at: http://www.bookfairypantryproject.com/