Dear Serve the City Geneva volunteers

Christmas is on us and we have a couple of new options for the season and New Year.

The next new event is on Saturday, 24 December. Yes, on the eve of Christmas the Carrefour Rue soup kitchen behind the main train station (Jardin de Montbrillant) is looking for 8 volunteers to help prepare and serve 150 or so lunches.

The next date that help is required will be Wednesday, 28 December at the same place 9am to 1pm, helping prepare and serve lunches. Finally, they will be serving an evening meal on New Year’s Eve, Saturday, 31 December. To help out with any of these meals, please sign up on the Get Involved page.

Carrefour Rue are also looking for volunteers to help them at La Coulou shelter on New Years Eve – please contact carrefour-rue@carrefour-rue.ch or call 022 734 67 60 for more information.

Then to finish off the soup kitchen projects, we need 2 more helpers for the “every other Wednesday” team, starting 11 January 2017 until the end of February. But if you would like to be a standby or start a new Wednesday Team from 18 Jan, you can express you interest by signing up on the website on the Get Involved page.

Our Partage sorting signups are going well but 2 dates still have a few openings if you would like help sort non-perishable food for the hungry of Geneva. It’s a weekday project in the Partage warehouse in Carouge (one Friday and three Thursdays) from 8am to 12 noon. It is a really nice project to help those less fortunate to ensure they get food on the table. Please sign up through the website.

If you have moved out of the area or are no longer able to volunteer with STC feel free to return the email with REMOVE in the subject line.

Thank you and best regards

Serve the City Geneva

Partage collection is over!  and WOW what a day..  STC had 3 stores and all 3 bettered their last years high!..

  
     Our staffing was low but enthusiasm was high.  Yes we had people who did not show but.. We had many who work double shifts, we had help from local schools, we had assistance from store management, and as mentioned, your service is responsible to help provide meals for over 900 of the needy people of Geneva every day for the next 6 months!!   The totals from the other 75 stores are not fully reported yet but my hope is they also had such dedicated workers!!   There were so many stories that I witnessed and I know there were stories that you saw and never reported. It was a very special day!

     Our next project will be sorting the 158 tons of collected items from 8 am – 12 noon on weekdays.

     Our current bookings are Friday, the 23rd of December and Thursdays, the 29th of December and the 5th & 12th of January.  If you know anyone who may be available for this fine extension of public service, do share it with them. An invitation to our volunteers will follow shortly. You can register HERE already!

Many, many thanks..   Serve the City Geneva..

            Now is the time to book in.    We have several opportunities to serve!
Our biggest challenge is to help collect food for the needy of Geneva on Saturday 26 November.   At the moment we have 3 stores confirmed and hopefully can fill some more. The areas are Satigny, Petit-Lancy, and Meyrin.   At Geneva Supermarkets we hand out bags for Samedi du Partage which mention the items we are collecting for the needy of the area.  The current program provides food for 900 people a day in Geneva.  A very wonderful  program. Please log in here to sign-up!
 
            When you sign up we would ask you select only one of the stores, and in the comment section mention your time preference  Morning, Noon or Afternoon (Normally 8or9-12, 12-3, 3-6 but some stores vary a little)   and if you don’t mind which store you serve mention “We will serve as needed”.    Families are welcome and feel free to bring a friend, just mention the total head count in the comment section.
 
               If you wish to provide a dinner for 40 homeless residents of the Salvation Army Shelter, you can always let us know what date would work best for you and what you would like to bring.
 
            The Salvation Army is also starting  a hot lunch program at the End of November.  And 6 days a week they truck in hot food the their homeless shelter and serve over 100 meals a day.   This is not to be confused with the residents mentioned above who we are trying to get something other than soup to them, for their evening meal.   There still may be slots available to be on one of the daily teams. If you sign up we will get you more contact information and dates available. Please log in here to sign-up!

Dear community,

Dear STC volunteers,

We have enjoyed a good year and have some nice projects on offer to help the community.

Even though some of the events are in late November, we are asking for signups NOW already to gauge the interest levels. We will confirm with you 2 weeks prior to the event to see if there has been any changes to your schedules. If enough volunteers sign up, we will for example be able to open extra stores for the Samedi du Partage.

First of all, we have a little fund raising project. (We know, everyone wants money 🙂 ) . Radio 74, the English speaking radio station of Geneva has been serving the community for 34 years and is in danger of closing at the end of the year.  STC and Global Hope Network International (one of our sponsors) have issued a “1000 CHF challenge” to local organizations, challenging them to reach their goal by 15 Nov.
Since the funds STC received are earmarked for the marginalized of the community, we cannot use these for Radio 74, so are therefore looking for extra donation to keep this station – that has given free advertising and support for STC events for the past 6 years – alive.  STC has already collected 30% of our target. If you want to join the challenge, please make a donation to STC (info on our website) with reference “Radio 74 1000 challenge”

Here are some of the coming events (Registration here):

* The big one is Saturday 26th of November when we are looking for 50 volunteers working at 4 different stores as part of the great Samedi du Partage initiative. We ask shoppers to purchase some products for the marginalized people of Geneva. This twice-a-year event collects enough to feed over 900 people a day! There are short 3 or 6 hour shifts at selected stores on the day.

* For those who like the great outdoors we have 3 events on the schedule working with A Rocha on maintaining forest areas and game reserves. They will take place in Mt. sur Rolle on 15 Oct and on 5 Nov, and in the Genolier area on 12 Nov.

* The Salvation Army has a shelter for 40 persons who get hot soup 7 days a week.  If you and a small team would like to prepare a hot meal for the homeless from 6:30 to 8:00 pm , please sign up and we can confirm your date. The shelter has no kitchen (only warming units) so preparation must be done off site.

* We have a gardening project at the housing project Eureka. The date will be confirmed.

* Voix Libres has a fund raising project for orphans and single moms of Bolivia that will need some French speakers soon.

* And lastly, if you have 2-3 hours a week to help STC plan events your services would be appreciated.

Many thanks.. Serve the City Volunteers