2021 Year Review

As we bring in the new year, Joshua’s Place wants to take a moment to recap the past year and celebrate!

It’s been a year of tremendous impact. Through the year’s challenges, the staff, volunteers, and supporters of Joshua’s Place have stood ready to serve and generously risen to help families struggling in poverty overcome the barriers that cause instability.

FOOD COOPERATIVE PROGRAM

Joshua’s Place converted our traditional food pantry to a Food Cooperative more than ten years ago. In that time, we’ve learned a lot as the Food Co-op has become our marquis ministry in the communities we serve. Joshua’s Place served over 120 families through the Food Cooperative, including 19 new families this year. Thanks to your generous donations, we have provided more than $140,000 in groceries for our Adult Food Cooperatives in Kings, Little Miami, and Deer Park!

CARE CLOSET

The Care Closet program places food and personal hygiene products in every building in our five school districts. Joshua’s Place provided over $80,000 in daytime nutrition and hydration supplies through this program!

READING RECOVERY PROGRAM

New this year was a Summer Reading Recovery program to support students that fell behind in reading due to virtual learning. Volunteers from our Kings and Lebanon sites worked with 25 children to make this program possible. The result was those children receiving 16 hours each of phonics-based tutoring and improved reading levels!

SUMMER CAMP

Kids at JP’s Summer Camps enjoyed opportunities to engage with reading, fun physical activity, and educational activities. Along with all of the fun they, received a hot lunch each day, and we served over 645 meals. Through the generosity of volunteers and donors, Summer Camps encourage kids to walk out the life God has created them to live.

WHIZ KIDS

After a year of pandemic, we restarted our in-person Whiz Kids program. Whiz Kids is an hour-long, one-to-one mentoring and tutoring program that improves reading. We had over 100 kids enrolled in the Kings, Lebanon, and Little Miami school districts this year.

BACK TO SCHOOL BACKPACKS

Joshua’s Place teamed up with volunteers to provide over 250 backpacks for students heading back to school in our Kings, Lebanon, Deer Park, and Little Miami School Districts. Sponsors filled these backpacks with school supplies specific to their school and grade level.

KINGS POWERPACKS & MASON SHINE PACKS

In 2021, the Kings and Mason communities came together monthly to assemble over 8,500-weekend food packs for families experiencing food insecurity. That’s over 50,000 meals! Thanks to your donations and time serving, we provide over 2500 meals each week!

MASON CARES

We wrapped up the year by providing families with holiday gifts through Mason Cares. Sponsors provided $75 in gifts to 359 students with donations totaling over $26,000 in Christmas gifts!

MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH GENEROUS DONATIONS

WALK ACROSS OHIO

Two local teachers, Ryan Ellis and Eric Pujari, accepted the physical and mental challenge to walk across Ohio for the second year. Ryan and Eric walked 207 miles from Toledo to Cincinnati and raised over $12,500!

GOLF CLASSIC

The second annual Prasco Joshua’s Place Golf Classic presented by Champlin Architecture raised over $20,000! Special thanks to the sponsors and golfers that made this possible.

ANNUAL GALA

Joshua’s Place hosted over 350 people at our Annual Fundraising Banquet in November. This year, we raised a record $117,000!

NEIGHBORHOOD CHALLENGE

This year we had 12 neighborhoods in two school districts participate in our Thanksgiving Neighborhood Challenge. Neighbors donated more than 350 meal kits, including a $20 Kroger gift card to purchase a turkey. Thank you for supporting us in 2021, and join us in praying for an even more impactful 2022!