A special thanks goes to Walmart and Bank of America for providing the funding to make this renovation possible. A heartfelt thanks goes to all of the volunteers and members of the community who helped make the dream a reality.

The post ECHO Celebrates New Kitchen & Pantry Renovations with Ribbon Cutting appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

The newly renovated kitchen/pantry will allow clients to shop for themselves.

food pantry brandon fl

The post Brandon Patch: Volunteers in the News ECHO Celebrates Completion of Renovated Kitchen appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

This new food distribution system will help empower our clients to shop for themselves in a dignified manner.  In addition to seven days’ worth of non-perishable items, Claudia was able to get fresh produce, meat, eggs and margarine.  We also offer toiletries and household goods when available.

ECHO will cut the ribbon on the new kitchen/pantry on Thursday, June 13 at 3 p.m.  Join us for the celebration!!

The post ECHO Kitchen Renovations & New Pantry Open for Business! appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

Yvonne started GED classes  after the first of the year and took the test in April.  “I decided to take the classes to better myself and to go to college,” said Yvonne.  In fact, Yvonne is on her way to a better life as she has already applied to attend HCC.

Services Offered By ECHO

FREE GED

ECHO offers free GED classes on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and on Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m.  You can work at your own pace.  Ms. Ginny, a retired Hillsborough County Schools teacher, provides one on one test prep assistance.
FREE COMPUTER CLASSES
We offer free Basic Computer (Thursdays from 2 to 3 p.m.) and Intermediate Computer (Wednesdays from 2 to 3 p.m.) classes.  Sign up for classes which start at the end of June by calling ECHO at 685-0935.  Class size is limited.
HEALTHY LIVING CLASSES
Registration is now available for the next series of Healthy Living classes which begin on June 19.  Learn about nutrition, how to eat healthy on a budget, reduce stress and what to ask your doctor.
Those who attend get a voucher for food and clothes from ECHO.
FREE VISION SCREENING
Prevent Blindness of Florida will be at ECHO on Friday, May 31 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon providing free vision screening.  Get a voucher for free prescription glasses.

The post ECHO’s FIRST GED GRADUATE appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO) is teaming up with Prevent Blindness Florida help those in need see a brighter tomorrow.With the help of the Allegheny Franciscan Ministries grant, Prevent Blindness Florida is able to work with ECHO in providing this screening in Brandon.

Kathy Collins, who started out as a volunteer, is now the event coordinator for ECHO. She was happy to shed light on why teaming up with Prevent Blindness was a good fit.
“It fits within our mission is trying to help people to get themselves out of their problems that they may have. If they can’t see, then they can’t look for jobs — so if they need glasses, it was a good thing for us to get involved with.”

Prevent Blindness Florida gives around three hundred free vision screenings each year helping between six and seven thousand people. Adults and children are provided with a visual acuity test to see a glasses may be needed. If so, they can apply for about a voucher the provides them with an eye exam and glasses, free of charge.

Jennifer Whittington, the program manager with Prevent Blindness Florida, explains that even though the free vision screening is open to anyone, there are guidelines for getting the voucher for a free eye exam and glasses.

“As far as the criteria for the examination and glasses, we do go by a two hundred percent of poverty guidelines. They would have to qualify financially, as well as the not having insurance that covers vision already — like medicaid, medicare, or private insurance.

This is the first time Prevent Blindness Florida worked with ECHO for vision screenings, both organizations look forward to working together in the future.

The post ECHO Partners with Prevent Blindness Florida appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

The Emergency Care Help Organization of Brandon, with Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, is presenting a “Run To End Hunger” at Al Lopez Park in Tampa this weekend.

The event is Saturday, March 23, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and features a 5K chip-timed run and a 3K run for kids, also chip-timed.

Registration at the park on race day begins at 7 a.m.

Here’s the particulars:

5K Chip-Timed Run 

• Starts at 8 a.m.
• Fee: $30

Kids 3K Chip Timed Run 

• Starts at 8 a.m.
• Cost: $25

______________

About The Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO)

ECHO is available to people who, because of emergency situations, are having trouble paying for food, clothes and other items. A person can used ECHO services up to four times on one lifetime.

Also at ECHO is a Client Service Center, which opened last year to provide a fuller range of services for people in need.

• See ECHO Grows With Client Service Center

• See A Crowning Achievement for ECHO, Client Service Center Opens

At the center, Efaw noted, clients can learn about and sign up electronically for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps; the Temporary Cash Assistance Program; Medicaid; and Healthy Kids insurance.

With Hillsborough Coummunity College and others, ECHO provides workforce training and classes and to provide counseling and assistance to better meet the needs of clients who find themselves in dire situations because of tough times, emergency situations or an ailing economy.

ECHO is at 507 North Parsons Ave. in Brandon, north of Brandon Boulevard, just over the railroad tracks on the east side of the street.

Related Topics: Charities, ECHO, and Fundraisers

The post ECHO’s Run To End Hunger featured in Bloomingdale Patch appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

By PAUL CATALA | Tribune correspondent
Published: March 12, 2013

View original story here
RIVERVIEW –The conditions weren’t as dire as those found during the Great Depression, but guests in a soup line still got a taste of the bare sustenance lifestyles some in eastern Hillsborough County go through each day.Standing underneath an outdoor pavilion, representatives from local restaurants and charitable organizations spooned out bowlfuls of various soups to guests who took part in Emergency Care Help Organization Brandon’s (ECHO) first “Empty Bowls” event.It was one of dozens of Empty Bowls events held annually around the world by artists and art groups to fight hunger.Artists create and donate bowls, then serve a simple meal. This year, five area elementary schools – Alafia, Cimino, Lithia Springs, Winthrop Charter, Frost and classes from Metropolitan Ministries — donated decorative clay pottery bowls handmade by students.

With their $15 donation, guests got to pick out a bowl to take home and were served a meal of soup, bread and water at the Winthrop Pole Barn.

Stacey Efaw, ECHO executive director, said about 20 ECHO volunteers came out to work the event. Ten area restaurants and civic groups served their favorite soups ranging from chicken noodle and cream of broccoli, to black bean and clam and corn chowder.

The event raised $7,000, adding to the $5,500 in sponsorships raised in advance.

“It was great and we’re hoping to grow the event next year. I hope those here gained awareness that there is a lot of working poor families in our area that suffer from food insecurity,” said Efaw, in her eleventh year with ECHO. “We want them to know there’s so many ways to help. We’re very easy to help.”

Shelley Valdez, art teacher at Lithia Spring Elementary School, said about 150 pupils from the school made decorative clay bowls to donate, with designs that included a clawed foot, hearts, starfish, and a turtle shell. She said pupils were anxious to get their projects out to guests.

“The kids loved it; they like to help,” she said. “I said by making a bowl and donating to the cause they’re helping raise money for those who are hungry.”

Since ECHO began in Brandon in 1987, the group has helped more than 150,000 individuals by providing food, clothing and household items. Each year, between 10,000 and 12,000 people in the Brandon area use the services.

Underneath the pavilion, diners chatted, scooped and slurped their soup. Tara Pannone of Riverview brought her daughter, Isabella, 8, to the event. She said Efaw told her about the event and she supports all of ECHO’s functions.

“ECHO helps local families and these events help explain how much need there is,” Pannone said. “There are a lot of hungry families now.”

For information, see www.echofl.org or call (813) 685-0935.

The post TBO: Empty Bowls event raises money to help disadvantaged appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

Original tbo article

Most of the students in art teacher Shelly Valdez’s classes likely have not experienced real hunger in their young lives.

As they prepared to make clay pinch bowls that will be used during an anti-hunger fundraiser, they learned that some 400,000 people just in the greater Hillsborough County region face food shortages regularly. Hunger is a reality for one in six children in this community.

The Lithia Springs Elementary School students made dozens of small clay bowls that will be used for Empty Bowls 2013, a fundraiser hosted by the Emergency Care Help Organization, or ECHO, to feed the needy. ECHO, located in Brandon, steps in for families in catastrophic situations when they need immediate assistance.

“I’ve been talking to the kids about what they can do with art to make a difference in people’s lives,” Valdez said. The “pinch pots,” as they are called, are one way to do that.

“It’s symbolic art,” said Stacy Efaw, executive director of ECHO. “It’s a way to remember that someone has an empty bowl.” Each person who attends Empty Bowls 2013 will take home one of the pinch pots as a reminder.

At the event, Bowls of soup will be prepared by area restaurants and will be served along with bread, water and a dessert.

“The Empty Bowls project helps people that may not have enough to eat,” Valdez told her students. “Sometimes, when you’re hungry, your stomach hurts. Sometimes, you feel a little sick. We are making these empty bowls because they symbolize no food – a reminder of empty bowls around the world.”

What do the youngsters know about how they can help? “We can donate food and clothes,” said 9-year-old Abigail Ball.

“We’ve donated tons of food, my family has,” said 9-year-old Lozier Mackey. “My aunt helped us.”

Troon Holton, 9, formed his pinch bowl into a heart shape and wrote “care” on the inside. “We have done donations in my scout troop and brought food to the church. If there are 400,000 people in the Tampa area that are hungry, it’s probably over a hundred million in the world.”

“We do World Vision in our family,” said 8-year-old Brock Lopez. “It’s a program where you send money to kids that don’t have food in different countries. We sponsor eight people. I didn’t know there were so many hungry here.”

Efaw said she is hoping to get at least 200 people to attend Empty Bowls 2013, a take-off on a national program used by numerous organizations to raise awareness of the hunger issue.

Sponsorships for the event are still available. To learn more, visit www.echofl.org.

www2.tbo.com (c) 2013 Tampa Media Group, Inc

The post Valrico students make ‘empty bowls’ for anti-hunger event appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

We are so very appreciative of this donation which will help ECHO to continue to serve over 10,000 area residents each year with food and clothing assistance. We could not do what we do without the support of clubs and organizations such as the Tampa Bay Vettes.

The post Tampa Bay Vette Club donates to ECHO appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.

 By: Bill Logan

The post Local students team up with charity to highlight hunger with “Empty Bowls.” appeared first on Emergency Care Help Organization: ECHO of Brandon FL.