Check Out Nourish Our Neighbors’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nourish Our Neighbors

Hi Nourish Our, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Since 2022, our team has been dedicated to building community and providing services to Dayton’s west side. The allocation of Montgomery county funds leaves the west side vulnerable to poor infrastructure, inadequate housing, food insecurity, and poverty. NON has made it our mission to serve our community members who need it most. What started as 50 hot meals and bottled water has blossomed into a much-needed distribution program ran based on input directly from the communities we serve.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We’ve faced many challenges in our time organizing in Dayton, from funding to organizational structure and constant harassment and brutality of the police. As a grassroots organization we fund our services based solely on money from our own pockets and donations from the community and friends online. A volunteer was arrested at one of our services for handing out burritos to unhoused community members due to a city ordinance that makes it illegal to distribute free food, toiletries or clothing. We have also seen the ways in which the Dayton Police Department constantly harasses and intimidates our unhoused neighbors.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, Nourish Our Neighbors seeks to bridge the gaps in our community with mutual aid, helping our neighbors in need, and connecting with and forming lifelong friendships with our volunteers and those we service. At our typical distribution service anyone can expect to see us handing out 100 free and hot home cooked meals, as well as hygiene items, first aid items, harm reduction supplies, and clothing. We also offer free haircuts from barbers as well as free manicures to help our low income and unhoused neighbors feel clean and beautiful.

We are most proud of the unhoused people we were able to help get into permanent housing considering how big of a task this is with HUD waiting lists being anywhere from 2-5 years. In addition, our ability to stay consistent with services even with fluctuating volunteers is something we are proud of. When doing services we are able to band together quickly in the face of brutality and injustice.

One thing that sets us apart from other nonprofits is that we meet the people where they’re at; we do no barriers services. Additionally, we are one of the only organizations doing this work who are willing to interact with police and refuse to give in to unconstitutional laws.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something that someone who is familiar with the work our organization does may be surprised to find out that we fund most of our services through donations we get on TikTok! Another may be that there is only 3 members of our organizations, this could be surprising because of how well organized and how large our services are!

Pricing:

• We don’t require any money for our services for anyone in need, however we are always in need of donations!
• Typically we spend around $600 for every service

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.nourishourneighbors.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourishourneighborsdyt/profilecard/?igsh=MTZob3hnajBlamI3OA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556458022966&mibextid=LQQJ4d