South Brevard Sharing Center

  South Brevard Sharing Center Brochure

  February 2011 Newsletter

Purpose:

South Brevard Sharing Center (SBSC) is about treating people with dignity and respect by providing a haven for those who struggle to meet their basic needs. The Sharing Center was founded in 1971 as a non-profit, community based agency for charitable and philanthropic purposes. The general nature and purpose of this organization is to provide short-term emergency assistance to needy individuals and families, in the Brevard County Area where Federal, State, and County funds are not available.

Letter from the Director:

40 Years of Service

As we enter our 40th Anniversary of service to the residents of South Brevard the South Brevard Sharing Center would like to thank all those who continue to support us in this life-saving and changing endeavor.

Over the holidays we were blessed through the generosity of the community to be able to provide 530 meals for Thanksgiving, 560 meals for Christmas, and 512 sets of toys for families and children living in poverty.
We were extremely blessed primarily through the support of the churches which enabled us to provide for all three of these holiday events. Monetarily the Sharing Center could not afford to run all three programs. As a result a consortium of local churches pulled together with the assistance of Thrivent Financial Services to support the Christmas meal basket program. The food and funding raised by this group was worth over $17,000. This program drive was headed up by Ms. Pat Gorski of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Hibiscus Blvd.

The Sharing Center’s need for support continues to grow in order to enable us to meet the tremendous increase in needs of our friends and neighbors who have fallen on hard times as a result of the “great recession”. The Center now gives a five day supply of food monthly, rather than the previous tree day supply quarterly, and we still are seeing 100-200 new families each and every month. Your donations of cash, food, clothing and household items greatly assists us in our mission to help lift up our neighbors in need.
Did you know…

…in each of the months of October and November we provided over 5,000 instances of assistance to individuals (up from 1,800 just two years ago).

…with your $1 cash donation the Sharing Center can purchase what would equal $5 in food at the local grocery store.

…the Sharing Center uses a state-of-the-art online county-wide database. This is very important from a stewardship perspective, as it enables us to see assistance received by individuals over time from all the county’s largest assistance providers. This reduces greatly abuse of your well intentioned donations.

…your dollars go further as a result of our extremely frugal operations costs. Our admin is between 5-6% of all costs. Nobody in business, non-profit, or government operates as frugally to do so much with so little as the Sharing Center.

…all donated monies stay here locally in South Brevard helping our very own friends and neighbors.
The Sharing Center is very grateful to all our supporters and ask that you consider giving today. We are in the midst of what we consider the post-holiday let down. Our holiday support was indeed glorious, but donations have nearly stopped and the record breaking levels of service still continue to be serviced daily. Please give!

Respectfully,

Michael S. Hubler

Executive Director

Services:
The Sharing Center is designed to provide emergency aid including help with food, clothing, household items and furniture for those in need. Referrals are accepted from all area agencies and religious organizations.