On the third Tuesday of each month, families line up outside of Lutheran Social Services for free eye exams, health screenings, HIV testing, and financial services while they wait to collect food from the food pantry. Since November of 2022 Alive has been the proud presenter of the monthly event that helps to support our community in such an impactful way.

For several months, Karen, supervisor of the Baymeadows Branch, attended these events. Karen and now Hali, speak to the attendees and provide financial education and provide product knowledge to assist them wherever they are at on their financial wellness journey. Many of these members of our community have suffered from a job loss, illness, or mave recently immigrated to the United States. The majority have no credit or are working to repair their credit, two life paths that Alive is well prepared to address. With Alive’s recent Bank On designation for our Fresh Start Checking Account, we expect even more of these members of the community will turn to Alive to assist in helping to get them back on their feet.

Beyond Alive’s partnership with Lutheran Social Services, CARES also worked with the food pantry earlier this year by not only raising over 400 lbs of food donations given to families in need, but also by leading a week long Pantry Volunteer initiative where team members from all over the credit union earned volunteer time off while helping pack food boxes and give them out to the displaced and hungry.

Stay tuned to learn more about how Alive works to inspire financial wellness in our community!

According to a USA Today report from 2022, parents spent $661 per child in grades K-12 on back-to-school purchases on average. That price can be assumed to be even greater as an effect of inflation this school year. 15 million children’s families do not have the money for school supplies. With budgets tighter than ever, our members and community may struggle with sending their children and teens back to school this year.

How can you help?

CARES has been inspired by the Brooks Rehab School Supply Drive. This school supply drive takes the donated pens, pencils, and various other supplies and distributes them to the Title I schools in Duval County. A Title I school is a school that has been tapped to be in a federally funded program based on the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch. These schools have a population of at least 40% of students in a low-income family. To be considered a low-income family, the average annual income cannot exceed $30,000 for a family of four.

CARES Challenges You!

CARES is challenging each of our branches in Jacksonville to begin collecting school supplies using the donation boxes that will delivered shortly. Not only do we challenge each branch to gather donated goods, we also want to see what branch can gather the most. As we all know, west side was the best side when it came to our Ronald McDonald tab collection. Who will be the greatest champion for our Duval County students in need? Time is of the essence: all donations end July 31st so that supplies can be organized and get out to the children before school starts in August.