50 years ago, People Reaching Out to People (or PROP) was founded on the principle of neighbors helping neighbors, by donating time, food, and money to those in need. More recently, we expanded our services to not only meet the basic needs of the 1,000 families we serve, but also provide skills to set clients on a path toward greater self-sufficiency. Our services include food programs, short-term financial assistance, enrichment programs for seniors and youth, and stability services (employment services, mental health counseling, nutritional coaching). Pax Christi’s grant supports PROP’s emergency housing fund.
COVID radically changed our delivery process but as an essential business, we never closed. We moved to remote client services by phone and curbside food pickup. We had a food delivery process in place but we quadrupled this service. We partnered with SW Transit to handle the delivery of a large portion of this need. We had to furlough most of our volunteers as our food space did not allow for social distancing. We created smaller shifts throughout the day and some weekends to keep up with the demands. We have staff that is willing to work remotely permanently which frees up space for future growth.
Our biggest needs are food and financial gifts. Our website is updated each week with our current needs - CLICK HERE.
Volunteer opportunities with PROP are significantly decreased. If you are interested in volunteering with PROP, please contact maryb@propfood.org and we will see if there is a safe way to do so.
During 2020 PROP Case Management worked directly with local landlords to help our clients. Through providing assistance we were able to leverage the relationship so that a family could know they would not face eviction even with the moratorium potentially expiring through the end of the year clie resolution. The landlord proactively told the client who had never asked for non-profit assistance of any kind before to call us. Client Story: Our client talked to his landlord about his plan to apply for rental assistance and to look for new job opportunities. The landlord and client agree that he won't evict him in the year of 2020 if a plan with PROP for financial assistance can be worked out."