SouthCoast Nonprofit Delivers Furniture Food and Christmas Magic

For this week's Southcoast Health Community Spotlight, we turned the light to My Brother's Keeper in Dartmouth and Easton. The organization's director Josh Smith told us what My Brother's Keeper is all about.

Food, Furniture and Feliz Navidad

"We help families with furniture, with food and with Christmas gifts each December," Smith said. "We have a small staff, only 20 of us between these two buildings, but we see about 5,000 volunteers each year who show up to help package the food and deliver it, or to wrap presents at Christmas time. We really depend on the community to come in and help us with these programs."

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Smith urges teens looking to get some volunteer hours under their belt to contact My Brother's Keeper at mybrotherskeeper.org.

"We'd love to get you involved. We have this amazing community, a lot of student volunteers, especially during the summer, right up to retirees. It's a really great group of people," Smith said. "Together we make about 20,000 deliveries of food, furniture and Christmas gifts each year."

From College Volunteer to Executive Director

"I started as a student volunteer while at Stonehill College. I've now been on staff about 18 years and most of our staff started that way as volunteers," Smith said. "We talk about services being a privilege. We get to go out and help families that are really struggling right now and it enriches our lives. It's a good feeling."

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How to Get Help from My Brother's Keeper

"Mybrotherskeeper.org has information about how to request help for any of these programs. Our helpline is (774) 305-4590," Smith said. "The food assistance, for example, that's a same day emergency program. People will call us this morning. We're going to deliver groceries to them this afternoon. We have about 75 people waiting for furniture right now."

Am I Qualified to Receive Help?

"We don't have prerequisites for service. We don't have strict income guidelines. If someone lives in a town that we help, they can call. We will help," he said. "A lot of the families that we help are working families, but money is tight. We'll go out and we can make their life a little easier."

A Soirée With a Purpose

My Brother's Keeper has its Southcoast Soirée coming up on Friday, October 3. The event will be held in the organization's warehouse. There will be food and music amongst the furniture and food boxes. The atmosphere reminds guests why they are there.