United Neighbors of Fall River Expands Services

This week's Southcoast Health Community Spotlight shines our light onto the United Neighbors of Fall River and their Executive Director, Wendy Garf-Lipp.

What is Happening at the United Neighbors of Fall River?

We're very happy about our comprehensive resource guide for the Greater Fall River area.  It's available on our website at unfr.org.  It's also printed in four different languages on our website and can be translated into 12 different languages.  The guide provides information that everybody who lives in the Greater Fall area needs.

For example, there's a listing of all the food pantries, when they're open and what information you might need to access them.  There's a listing of all the soup kitchens. There's a listing of where you can get gently used clothing. There are listings about where you can find child care and where you can find services There's even listings on every park in Fall River including which ones have baseball fields and which have splash pads.  It's one-stop shopping and we keep on updating it.

The Emergency Food Cupboard

You can search out website for the emergency food cupboard and make an appointment.  We do not carry fruits and vegetables, dairy, meats, and things like that, but we can give you a couple of days worth of non-perishable food. We also can provide toiletries, deodorant, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste and very often we have Windex and laundry detergent.  The entire program works on donations from area churches and organizations that conduct drives.

Our emergency food cupboard doesn not require identification. We only ask your first name and how many people will benefit. We don't care who you are, where you come from, or where you live. We welcome anybody that needs to eat.

Period Poverty

We found out that 23% of menstrators missed a day of school during their period, not because they were sick, had cramps, or are uncomfortable.  It was because they feared not having access to menstral products in a non-punitive way.

One of the things Southcoast Health has done is join the coalition against period poverty. They've done a variety of different drives in their hospitals and keep us supplied with enough product that we provide for 17 different organizations in the Greater Fall River area.  They've also worked to advocate in the Fall River middle and high schools to have free machines in every bathroom.

United Neighbors partners with many, but the depth of the partnership with South Coast is amazing. I feel that they get our mission. We can repair our corner of the world and Southcoast Health has stepped up in a really big way.