CHiPS Soup Kitchen & Women's Shelter

A big thank-you to Denise and her grandchildren Isabella and Savana for their thoughtfulness and generosity! This morning they stopped by to drop off 30 care packages for our soup kitchen guests with toiletries and warm scarves. We are so grateful!

The Lunch-a-thon was such an incredible success! Thanks to all who participated and helped us keep our neighbors fed! #repost @loveandvictory You are all our heroes. You prepared over 1,200 sandwiches this week to help @chips4thave feed our Brooklyn neighbors. And raised over $1,500. Thank you for taking your precious time and money to help. Big shout outs to all the kids who so proudly prepped and delivered. And the biggest love goes to @katypango at @no7restaurant who in addition to running a restaurant during Covid signed on to this project with me. My heart is full. #lunchathon

CALL FOR DONATIONS: We are in need of a huge re-stock of items from our Amazon Wishlist! We are most in need of: containers, utensils, snacks, and juice. Check out our Amazon Wishlist by clicking the link below, and please purchase a few items if you are able! Thank you so much for your support! https://buff.ly/3klsaU2

Folks walking past our building may have noticed the scaffolding and construction crews outside as of late. We are sad to say that due to irreparable weather-related damage, the lovely mural from Groundswell that has called our building home for 16 years is being removed. We are so grateful to have had this beautiful artwork, titled "Voices Her'd: I Deal, I Dream, I Do" by Brooklyn artist Charlene Tarbox, grace our facade for all these years.

Volunteer Profile: Meet Steve Miller! Steve is infamous around CHiPS as our resident troublemaker and jokester, always looking to get a laugh out of his fellow volunteers. He's been volunteering at CHiPS for about 12 years now, and while he can't volunteer in-person at the moment, he's been making sandwiches for our Pop-Up regularly since March. How did you first hear about CHiPS?... "Well, I was retired for about a week before my wife started looking for ways to get me out of the house. She learned about CHiPS, and signed me up to start volunteering on Mondays. Next thing I know, I'm coming in to volunteer three times a week!" What do you like best about volunteering at CHiPS? Can you share a memorable moment? "I've met so many new people in my time here at CHiPS. And we really know how to have fun. One time, I spent like, $15 bucks on a really realistic-looking plastic rat. I mean, it was really gnarly-looking. I hid it in the kitchen and scared the pants off of one of the other volunteers. When I came looking for it again the following week, I found out it was gone, someone had thrown it out! $15 down the drain! It was worth it, though." Is there anything else you'd like to share? "I already have a song picked out for the talent show at next year's Volunteer Appreciation Party. I really hope it happens, I'm so excited." We won't spoil it for you, but Steve told us the title and even sang an excerpt. Everyone who attends next year's party is really in for a treat!

Annie, a great friend of CHiPS, hit a huge milestone recently-- she has now cooked over 2,000 meals for our Pop-Up since the program began in March! What a superstar! Here she is posing with Max, one of our kitchen coordinators who organizes all of our incoming food donations for the Pop-Up. Annie also likes to bake, so she always brings along fruit-laden pound cake or other goodies-- always one package for the soup kitchen staff, and one for our Frances Residence. Thank you, Annie!

Myles and his family stopped by last week to donate two boxes full of groceries for our pantry program. Myles was so excited about stopping by and helping out! Thank you, Myles!

Love & Victory and No. 7 Restaurant are organizing a Lunch-A-Thon for CHiPS next week! Enlist your friends, your kids, spread the word, and do some good for your neighbors by preparing sandwiches for our Pop-Up! HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:... You make Sandwiches. Any kind. Label them with type of sandwich (e.g., PB&J or Turkey & Swiss) with a label or Sharpie. Drop them off to one of their two drop off locations and they do the rest! Drop off locations are: No. 7 Restaurant in Fort Greene or Love & Victory in Windsor Terrace. Want your sandos to go further? Ask your friends & fam to sponsor you! Not a sandwich artist? Sponsor someone who is! Go to https://buff.ly/2GMk60k for more details and to sign up!

Local artist Michael James Freedman has been generously donating a whopping 100% of proceeds from sales of his giclée prints to CHiPS! His works include landscapes, still lifes, and compositions about protests, politics, and social justice. To check out the rest of his work and to buy a print of your own, please visit https://buff.ly/2SSozRi. All proceeds from prints purchased between now and Friday, October 16th will come directly to CHiPS!

SPECIAL CALL FOR DONATION: One of the mothers in our Frances Residence has requested a jumper for her baby, so the baby has a safe place to play. She has a specific model picked out that is priced at $99.99 + taxes. If you are interested in purchasing this gift for our mom, please email [email protected] and we will send you the link to purchase! We ask that you please do not call about this donation, and please do not drop off without being in touch with our admin email first-- we can't accept more than one of these jumpers. We thank you!

What can we say besides, WOW! CHiPS originally set out to raise $10,000 for our hunger programs in honor of Hunger Action Month. But thanks to your generosity, and a matching gift of $5,000 from an anonymous family foundation, we raised a total of $19,925! This money will support our two vital food programs: The Pop-Up at CHiPS and our food pantry program. We thank you for making this our most successful Hunger Action Month yet!

UPDATE: Thanks to our friend Beth, the sneakers are purchased and on their way! We are still in need of winter boots, size 13W. ______ CALL FOR DONATIONS: We are looking for 1 pair of sneakers (size 13W) and 1 pair of winter boots (size 13W) for a young homeless man without shoes who visited our Pop-Up. New shoes preferred, but we can accept used shoes if they are clean and very gently used (like-new). ... We would like to get him sneakers ASAP, and winter boots soon, as the season is fast approaching. If you are able to donate one or both of these items, please email [email protected]! We ask that you please do not call about this donation, and please do not drop off without being in touch with our admin email first-- we can't accept more than one pair of each. Email is best to ensure no wires are crossed. Thank you!

We are just over $1,000 away from hitting our goal for our Hunger Action Month campaign, which to raise $10,000 to support our Pop-Up soup kitchen and food pantry programs. Will you help us reach our goal? Donate by clicking below! https://buff.ly/33ezASW We need your help now more than ever to ensure we can continue doing what we do best: giving food to all who need it. Thank you so much for your support!